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Burnham’s Budget is going to break Britain’s back

  The PM will keep plucking the goose until there are no feathers left Daily Telegraph 27/08/26 With ever-growing tedium, the forthcoming Budget once again seeks to extract more tax from the public. As Jean-Baptiste Colbert famously said: “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible number of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.” Andy Burnham, it would seem, is deaf to the hissing. He appears determined to keep plucking, no matter the pain. But more tax is not just a threat to Britain’s   attractiveness for wealth creators and entrepreneurs   – it’s a direct attack on those who keep the economy alive. Nor should one be surprised that, when asked which taxes should go up, people always plump for the one they are unlikely to have to pay themselves. So, which taxes are being spoken about the most? The first is a wealth tax, which will be impossible to collect and will cost more to administer. Outside quoted invest...
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Badenoch: Burnham will bankrupt Britain

  Tory leader says PM’s inability to make tough decisions and say ‘no’ to spending will lead to chaos in the economy Daily Telegraph 03/09/26 Britain will go bankrupt under Andy Burnham, Kemi Badenoch has said. The Conservative Party leader said the Prime Minister risked running out of money by making too many promises and being unable to say no to government departments. In a speech on Thursday morning, Mrs Badenoch set out her plans to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 by slashing Britain’s welfare bill . Mr Burnham has so far declined to commit to the same target. In a warning to the Prime Minister about the threat posed by Russia, Mrs Badenoch said: “Vladimir Putin called Britain Russia’s number one enemy. National security doesn’t just happen, we have to pay for it and that means spending more money on defence.” Advertisement Asked whether Mr Burnham would bankrupt Britain, she said: “If you listen to his statement on [Tuesday] , I think the answer is ‘p...
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Bond markets turn on Burnham

  Borrowing costs soar to highest in decades, leaving Prime Minister facing £14bn Budget shortfall Daily Telegraph 01/09/26 Andy Burnham’s Commons debut as Prime Minister on Tuesday was overshadowed by a market rout that sent borrowing costs to their highest in decades. Addressing MPs for the first time since entering No 10, Mr Burnham claimed that “life is too expensive and too hard for too many”, blaming Brexit and Margaret Thatcher for “low growth and stalled regeneration”. Pledging to bring back hope to Britain , the Prime Minister said he would deliver “much more substantial change” to the economy to reduce household bills. However, he now faces a shortfall of up to £14bn in his autumn Budget following a surge in gilt yields, which will squeeze his plans for higher spending. Britain’s borrowing costs have risen at one of the fastest paces in the world, with interest rates on 10-year gilts, a benchmark for the Treasury, reaching their highest level since 2008. The cost to bor...
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Kemi’s finally showing the ruthlessness that the Tories need

  Sacking Mel Stride and Priti Patel signals Badenoch is building a serious government-in-waiting Daily Telegraph 31/08/26 If you were leader of the Opposition, would you rather have: a) shadow ministers that the public had never heard of, or b) shadow ministers they had heard of and disliked? This week, as rumours of an imminent reshuffle swirled, those appeared to be Kemi Badenoch ’s only two options. Dame Priti Patel , for instance, suffers – rather unfairly – from a lingering association with the Boriswave, at least in the Tory assessment. At the other end of the spectrum, most voters would be unable to tell you whether Mel Stride was a man or a woman. Well, on Monday both were sacked (though Patel was handed a new “international role”). With Reform bleeding from self-inflicted wounds, this tells us something about Badenoch’s ambition for the party, not to mention her emerging strategy and determination to succeed. Both Stride and Patel were appointed in the aftermath of the ...
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