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So far he’s very much made sure to balance spend/tax/borrowing commitments. There may well be a loosing up on the way, but just as likely that any big spending announcements will be paired with future tax changes.
From the business rates cut report... "The most eye-catching thing is the idea this support is going to be paid for by reviewing tax reliefs currently given to businesses “that don’t make a positive contribution to local communities” specifically highlighting vape shops."
That's some interesting mental gymnastics to say alcohol good, vape bad.
There's the widespread belief that a lot of vape shops, barbers and micro convenience stores aren't legitimate businesses.
So far he’s very much made sure to balance spend/tax/borrowing commitments.
He hasn't really. All he's done is told a believable story about where the money is coming from. Doesn't matter though because no one really cares if it's going to benefit them. Too early to get to carried away but I think they might have finally managed to burst the nations-finances-as-a-household's bubble without spooking the markets?
That's some interesting mental gymnastics to say alcohol good, vape bad.
That's some interesting mental reductiveness.
You lot talking about VAT, business rates, US bases etc are all missing the important issue, as identified by the Telegraph and co - his wife's dress.
…just background mood music to show hes not Starmer.
Yup. Doing it well so far though.
Kind of get the impression that so far he has taken the minutes from the last council meeting, and applied them to the UK. Vapes as a criminal enterprise, rough sleeping and high costs of being in the service industry. Which seems very sensible to me - few easy hits, bit of breathing space whilst he finds his feet. As for getting rid of the Starmer lot from the cabinet, again seems entirely sensible and something we can associate with.
The problem with targeting vape shops, barbers and convenience stores is the ownership can change overnight.
They'll run up council debts, do a moonlight flit and whoever is really behind them will have a new 'owner' installed the next day with a clean slate.
Ridiculous own goal from Rayner, particularly after criticising the Tories for the same thing in the past.
Daft, daft, daft.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx27mg0erd3o
What does this number 10 north/south business mean for second/third homes for MPs?
Listened to R4 and Andy Burnham is only anticipated to be there one day a week. Seems to be a waste of money maintaining security, etc. 24/7
The number 10 north thing is basically moving some of the cabinet office out of Westminster. Most govt departments have split sites. Health and DWP are in Leeds, Treasury in Darlington etc
The one day a week will probs be Friday when Parliament isn't sitting and MPs are in their constituency. That said I would be very surprised if he manages one day a week - at least it's near his constituency
There's the widespread belief that a lot of vape shops, barbers and micro convenience stores aren't legitimate businesses
I'd say it's a widespread *understanding*.
One of the Turkish barber places on my local high street has rebranded 3 times in 2 years. It's a constant game of whack-a-mole for the underfunded, under-resourced Trading Standards folk to find the dodgy ones, close them down, then they pop up again under a new name a few days later.
Anyway in other news there's a meeting of all the Mayors and Andy Burnham tomorrow up in Manchester - as a former Mayor himself, he should be pretty good with this so fingers crossed.
There's a street in my small town that is almost entirely made up of barbers, vapes and micro convenience stores. They are raided on a regular basis but it barely seems to make a dent.
Sadly a lot of the vape shop raids are good attention line grabbers, but not productive, especially if stuff gets seized. Often in seizing stuff all that is really done is a more or less free tidy up of the stock room, and disposal of stuff that just doesn't sell. A fine of a few thousand pounds is nothing to what is organised crime. And then if the store gets boarded up, that's a nice look for the area isn't it?
I cant imagine that the embassy posted this without permission from No10
https://bsky.app/profile/gillmartin.bsky.social/post/3mressgqnik2u
Apparently they suspended it then reinstated it.
Absolutely agree about X, all of Europe not to mention the rest of the world should make a point of completely dropping it.
nicked from elsewhere but apparently when the new PM showed up at the palace to meet the King and the royal household staff member announced ANDY BURNHAM! in a loud voice outside the door, Charles's immediate instinct was that his brother had turned up with his special photo album again.
I would love to know what this performative nonsense is costing.What does this number 10 north/south business mean for second/third homes for MPs?
Listened to R4 and Andy Burnham is only anticipated to be there one day a week. Seems to be a waste of money maintaining security, etc. 24/7
I would love to know what this performative nonsense is costing.What does this number 10 north/south business mean for second/third homes for MPs?
Listened to R4 and Andy Burnham is only anticipated to be there one day a week. Seems to be a waste of money maintaining security, etc. 24/7
I can genuinely relate to the cynicism but as someone that lives in Kent I can't help but think that there are large parts of the UK that have basically have been forgotten for decades. Even within Kent that applies but I think it's almost endemic further north.
Even if it is performative, if it demonstrates a true intent to bring a bit of hope (and money) to those parts of the UK that have been left behind in on with it
Are we overthinking the the Number 10 North thing? Fridays MPs go back to their constituencies - those ministers up north now have a different office to use up there, instead of being tied to Westminster for an extra day. I'm assuming southern based ministers stay diwn south as usual.
Burnham is only anticipated to be there one day a week. Seems to be a waste of money…
As opposed to spending money on ministers being in London all week (which of course they already aren’t). There’s more to this than “having a no10 outpost in the North” of course, he’s doing a Gordon Brown and bringing functions from the treasury and other departments into his direct team… in order to (and I believe this is his genuine intention)… make sure those functions deal probably with people local to where their decisions and work hit. The PM can’t ensure government probably deals with regional mayors etc without keeping a stronger hand on key functions as regards business policy and social housing policy in particular.
If you removed "performative" from politics you wouldn't have politicians but elected administrators.
Are we overthinking the the Number 10 North thing?
At this stage yes.
I would love to know what this performative nonsense is costing
If you’re worried about the cost of No10 north wait until you see the cost of the one in central London.
Turn Downing Street into a posh hotel and move government to something functional and outside the southeast corner of the most southern country of the UK.
Are we overthinking the the Number 10 North thing?
Number 10 (south) isn't big enough and is already split across sites in London. No arguments there.
Lancashire is supposedly the centre of the UK and GB
Birmingham is better for East-West distribution, e.g the oft-forgotten people of Wales
I'd use existing buildings in both areas and spread the love and the Ministers/MPs around their constituencies more. The Manchester new-build is already ear-marked for other Civil Service depts and won't open until around the next GE anyway
Seems to have done more actual grounded things in a week - with half a mandate than the previous shambles did in 2 years. (That silly run-way FFS.)
(That doesn't mean there aren't concerns of course.)
Although his style is starting to look a bit over-casual with the comms. But actually this will probably do much better than the stiff corporate messaging of Starmer's lot.
York or Edinburgh I reckon.
Manchester is too far south.
And for the avoidance of doubt 😉😉😉
If you removed "performative" from politics you wouldn't have politicians but elected administrators.
That’s pretty much what we had. But with a “performative” politician leading the polls Labour people got scared and wanted to fight fire with wire. The “administrator” politician thought that delivering Reform policies on asylum and immigration would keep the threat of Farage at bay. Few people outside his little circle thought that would pay off. It certainly hasn’t so far (who knows what might have happened with that given two more years). Enter someone who can do politics in a more media and bloke down the pub savvy way…
The vibes are good but everything is very small (still way better than Starmers awful start) He has a big plan to turn around the damage started by Thatcher but what is it and when is he telling anyone?
depending on the amounts of money being offered
this s is actually a major policy announcement
https://bsky.app/profile/groomb.bsky.social/post/3mrise4mzmc26
Chatting to someone yesterday, basically their opinion was the South West is even more screwed. No chance of any money going forward.
so it makes sense to duplicate it?I would love to know what this performative nonsense is costing
If you’re worried about the cost of No10 north wait until you see the cost of the one in central London.
Turn Downing Street into a posh hotel and move government to something functional and outside the southeast corner of the most southern country of the UK.
what does this do for Wales, Scotland and NI? Is he the PM of the UK or just England? (or even just the North of England)depending on the amounts of money being offered
this s is actually a major policy announcement
https://bsky.app/profile/groomb.bsky.social/post/3mrise4mzmc26
This already happens for Wales, Scotland and NI.
money wise, yes, to an extent...but everything seems to be about England so farThis already happens for Wales, Scotland and NI.
Listened to R4 and Andy Burnham is only anticipated to be there one day a week. Seems to be a waste of money maintaining security, etc. 24/7
I don’t know what your working environment is like, but when my boss isn’t in the office, things.still get done. Why do you think this would be any different?
It's good to hear Burnham is prepared to disagree with Trump, but the clause "only if necessary" is disappointing, because in my mind, the point where it was necessary to disagree with him ****ing set sail a looong time ago 😭.
Seems to be a waste of money maintaining security, etc. 24/7
Heron House is an existing government building, Manchester Digital Campus is an existing government building project. Burnhams No10 of the North experiment will occupy spaces within those as far as Ive read. You won't "not have" costs by No10 staying in Downham Street full time.
Listened to R4 and Andy Burnham is only anticipated to be there one day a week. Seems to be a waste of money maintaining security, etc. 24/7
I don’t know what your working environment is like, but when my boss isn’t in the office, things.still get done. Why do you think this would be any different?
To be absolutely clear (as Starmer would say) I don't think that work won't get done.
I do think that maintaining a private office with space for assistants, etc and all of the implications for less than a day a week is comparatively pointless.
The "northern" ministers can see what's needed while AB is dealing with foreign policy.
Seems to be a waste of money maintaining security, etc. 24/7
Heron House is an existing government building, Manchester Digital Campus is an existing government building project. Burnhams No10 of the North experiment will occupy spaces within those as far as Ive read. You won't "not have" costs by No10 staying in Downham Street full time.
To be absolutely clear (as Starmer would say) the new MDC building was probably planned before all this leadership challenge started.
A PMs private office with space for assistants wasn't in the plans and will no doubt lead to others not having their planned space.
I think that "hot-desking" with the PM is likely to be frowned upon 😉
At this stage, there's too much guesswork going into people's opinions for me to take them too credibly.
What I do know (within reason for British PMs of late) is Burnham is in place until 2029, so I'll just see back and see how it pans out thanks.
I'm honestly not of a strong opinion one way or the other. But as things stand most of the critism is guesswork, unquantified assumptions, or politically motivated.
I'm honestly not of a strong opinion one way or the other. But as things stand most of the critism is guesswork, unquantified assumptions, or politically motivated.
You say that like it's a bad thing...
money wise, yes, to an extent...but everything seems to be about England so farThis already happens for Wales, Scotland and NI.
Didn't we spend a lot of time and money devoling stuff to Scotland, Wales and NI about 20 odd years ago - it's just taken a long time for the English to catch up
