"Burnham, though, does not plan to build a road. He intends to drill directly to Hell with industrial tunnelling machines. There is no force of magic that can make socialism work."
As I've said for many years now we sadly have to reach rock bottom before we can start to address our serious ingrained problems.
Burn'em's tenure in Number 10 simply speeds up the process of our 'race to the bottom'.
I expect that in a zero-growth economy there will be an even greater effort to blame everyone else - Thatcher, the far right, Brexit, bankers, southerners, Israel, colonialism, you name it, and making sure that if you are kind, you cannot ever be wrong. The fault is with the person who cannot see this and is either being manipulated by bad information or is just a bad person. Not sure where the happy ending is going to be.
What an excellent piece, Pete. Thank you and nice to see you back from the wars!
Seriously, your work on defence is probably fab, but I am not technically proficient on that front, so it doesn't resonate with me in the same way, although I'm sure plenty of others do.
However, now that you are back on the track of what is happening in Government generally, you can't be bested. I do hope Farage and Lowe read your blogs. Somehow I doubt it.
Exactly. The devolution programme and single-tier local government proposals will take years to implement and cost millions in staff disaggregation costs alone, if they even go ahead. I was involved in one back in 1998, when councils actually had reasonable budgets and plentiful reserves; even then, they did not make much difference. Today, the whole sector is largely overextended financially, so any major local development is always reliant on Treasury funds.
I worked on the New Labour-era zero-street-homelessness strategy in a local authority back in the late nineties. It involved meetings with Housing Departments, Housing Associations, key charities, and churches, as well as conducting street counts (checking low-level air-conditioning vents around the back of the local Asda, abandoned factories, etc.). It worked mainly because the economy was booming, Government regeneration funding was available to convert housing into small flats, jobs were plentiful, and mental health services were able to offer rehab and detox—capabilities that were cut sharply in 2008 and have never recovered.
So yes, you are right: open borders will add to the problem, but native unemployment, particularly amongst the young, will also exacerbate it. Ironically, if you survey actual civil society at the time Blair came to power, it was more diverse and independent—a key part of the Thatcher legacy. The Manpower Services Commission was still around, though it was renamed the Training Commission in 1987.
Today, if the Government pulls the levers, the quangocracy will leap into action to explain that it has insufficient funds to do much. We have regulations, duties, and responsibilities, but no capacity. Listening to the leaked policies yesterday, fawned over by a doting BBC and Channel 4, I paused for a moment and thought: has there been any real work done on these ideas? And today I got my answer: I hear there will be an immediate cut in VAT on people's energy bills. But this will mean £45 less on my utilities bill a YEAR! Hurrah! But wait, my bills used to be £1200 a year before the 2018 election and are now £3300, a 175% increase, most of it in Green subsidies. We got a rebate under Sunak for around £50 a MONTH for over a year. So I hereby pronounce this the first of what will no doubt be many Burnham dead-cat bounce gimmicks.
Burnham did make one comment which I liked, about land value tax. Whether this actually becomes something, I don’t know but it’s the only viable way out of our demographic collapse. Remove taxes from productive activity (earned wealth) and put it on the land (unearned wealth). Create an economy which isn’t entirely based upon speculation in the value of land, and extraction of rent from the working public into private landlords pockets….
I'd add that like Starmer, he has no understanding of what the country's issues are. Starmer thought all we needed was a bit of managerial competence instead of the Tory shit show. Burnham thinks all the country needs is some niceness. I despair.
"He has no mandate". That is the most important point. At least the Starmer plan was voted in. Now we have a change of plan and have had no opportunity to vote on it. Democracy, in the UK, was dying before this. Is it now dead?
Burnham has more leeway than Badenoch to push his policies.
For instance, if he gets his way on jury trials, it’s a positive.
If.
The woman put in charge of the MOJ wants an end to jury trials. So why has he selected her? Pressure?
Before he’s even parked his bottom, the lines are being drawn.
He could go to the people and invoke a general election - a weapon to be held back (a sort of bees sting - kills the bee too).
Burnhams tenure looks like being decided by forces elsewhere.
He’s an Evertonian so he has got a lot of patience, confirmed by his time in the backwaters of the Manchester mayoral role.
Strangely, his economic politics seem rather more in tune with Trump than with globalists.
The economics of investment = growth = success.
Trump looks for growth through private money. A British PM doesn’t have that luxury.
But you never know, Elon might be persuaded by a Burnham free from the shackles of his Fabian/socialist backers. That would require an election resulting in a Parliament with a lot fewer Labour MPs and the need for a re-invigorated economy.
He’s not daft. He knows that more migration is a vote loser.
Burnham needs a minority government and a thriving economy to succeed.
"Burnham, though, does not plan to build a road. He intends to drill directly to Hell with industrial tunnelling machines. There is no force of magic that can make socialism work."
As I've said for many years now we sadly have to reach rock bottom before we can start to address our serious ingrained problems.
Burn'em's tenure in Number 10 simply speeds up the process of our 'race to the bottom'.
That is, sort of, good news, in that we wont have to wait long. Fasten your seat belts!
For the ride of your life!
I expect that in a zero-growth economy there will be an even greater effort to blame everyone else - Thatcher, the far right, Brexit, bankers, southerners, Israel, colonialism, you name it, and making sure that if you are kind, you cannot ever be wrong. The fault is with the person who cannot see this and is either being manipulated by bad information or is just a bad person. Not sure where the happy ending is going to be.
What an excellent piece, Pete. Thank you and nice to see you back from the wars!
Seriously, your work on defence is probably fab, but I am not technically proficient on that front, so it doesn't resonate with me in the same way, although I'm sure plenty of others do.
However, now that you are back on the track of what is happening in Government generally, you can't be bested. I do hope Farage and Lowe read your blogs. Somehow I doubt it.
The latest in a long line of failures. And the Summer of Love has just arrived, of course.
Unfortunately after the lurv, comes the pain - I can feel it already 🫣
Aren't we coming up to the second anniversary?
Sadly, I suspect you’re bang on the button about Burnham….
I wonder when Fabianism will cease to enthral people? The gradualism is now reaching its apogee, and will come up against the iron ceiling of reality.
A man without a plan is planning to fail. 100% certain.
Exactly. The devolution programme and single-tier local government proposals will take years to implement and cost millions in staff disaggregation costs alone, if they even go ahead. I was involved in one back in 1998, when councils actually had reasonable budgets and plentiful reserves; even then, they did not make much difference. Today, the whole sector is largely overextended financially, so any major local development is always reliant on Treasury funds.
I worked on the New Labour-era zero-street-homelessness strategy in a local authority back in the late nineties. It involved meetings with Housing Departments, Housing Associations, key charities, and churches, as well as conducting street counts (checking low-level air-conditioning vents around the back of the local Asda, abandoned factories, etc.). It worked mainly because the economy was booming, Government regeneration funding was available to convert housing into small flats, jobs were plentiful, and mental health services were able to offer rehab and detox—capabilities that were cut sharply in 2008 and have never recovered.
So yes, you are right: open borders will add to the problem, but native unemployment, particularly amongst the young, will also exacerbate it. Ironically, if you survey actual civil society at the time Blair came to power, it was more diverse and independent—a key part of the Thatcher legacy. The Manpower Services Commission was still around, though it was renamed the Training Commission in 1987.
Today, if the Government pulls the levers, the quangocracy will leap into action to explain that it has insufficient funds to do much. We have regulations, duties, and responsibilities, but no capacity. Listening to the leaked policies yesterday, fawned over by a doting BBC and Channel 4, I paused for a moment and thought: has there been any real work done on these ideas? And today I got my answer: I hear there will be an immediate cut in VAT on people's energy bills. But this will mean £45 less on my utilities bill a YEAR! Hurrah! But wait, my bills used to be £1200 a year before the 2018 election and are now £3300, a 175% increase, most of it in Green subsidies. We got a rebate under Sunak for around £50 a MONTH for over a year. So I hereby pronounce this the first of what will no doubt be many Burnham dead-cat bounce gimmicks.
Burnham did make one comment which I liked, about land value tax. Whether this actually becomes something, I don’t know but it’s the only viable way out of our demographic collapse. Remove taxes from productive activity (earned wealth) and put it on the land (unearned wealth). Create an economy which isn’t entirely based upon speculation in the value of land, and extraction of rent from the working public into private landlords pockets….
Proper lols, Pete. Some gorgeous turns of phrase.
I'd add that like Starmer, he has no understanding of what the country's issues are. Starmer thought all we needed was a bit of managerial competence instead of the Tory shit show. Burnham thinks all the country needs is some niceness. I despair.
Spot on Pete. All I've heard from Burnham is vaccuous sound bites. The man lacks any sort of talent, substance or political conviction.
Yep, there's a very strong warning here for the right, and it needs to be taken on board immediately.
Prolly won't though until egos are put in the box
"He has no mandate". That is the most important point. At least the Starmer plan was voted in. Now we have a change of plan and have had no opportunity to vote on it. Democracy, in the UK, was dying before this. Is it now dead?
Burnham has more leeway than Badenoch to push his policies.
For instance, if he gets his way on jury trials, it’s a positive.
If.
The woman put in charge of the MOJ wants an end to jury trials. So why has he selected her? Pressure?
Before he’s even parked his bottom, the lines are being drawn.
He could go to the people and invoke a general election - a weapon to be held back (a sort of bees sting - kills the bee too).
Burnhams tenure looks like being decided by forces elsewhere.
He’s an Evertonian so he has got a lot of patience, confirmed by his time in the backwaters of the Manchester mayoral role.
Strangely, his economic politics seem rather more in tune with Trump than with globalists.
The economics of investment = growth = success.
Trump looks for growth through private money. A British PM doesn’t have that luxury.
But you never know, Elon might be persuaded by a Burnham free from the shackles of his Fabian/socialist backers. That would require an election resulting in a Parliament with a lot fewer Labour MPs and the need for a re-invigorated economy.
He’s not daft. He knows that more migration is a vote loser.
Burnham needs a minority government and a thriving economy to succeed.
We need Reform.NOW