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Burnham sets out 1970s vision for Britain

Andy Burnham has set out a 1970s vision for Britain in his first speech as Labour leader. Daily Telegraph 17/07/26 The prime minister-in-waiting said that under Margaret Thatcher, the country had “surrendered control of the essentials – housing, water, energy, transport – and left people exposed to higher costs”. Opening the door to nationalising public services, he said: “If we don’t have sufficient public control over the cost of the essentials, how can we have control over inflation, public spending and the rest of the economy?” Mr Burnham added that Britain “took a series of wrong turns” in the 1980s and criticised his generation of politicians for failing to challenge the neoliberalism that “led to the concentration of more wealth and power in the hands of fewer people”. The MP for Makerfield warned that Labour had one last chance to change and pledged to govern on behalf of “forgotten places everywhere” by taking power away from Westminster and Whitehall, devolving it across the ...
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Shame on Labour MPs for applauding a leader they’ve just knifed in the back

It was a sight to behold: Starmer being given a standing ovation by the very same people who forced him out Daily Telegraph 16/07/26   There’s a well-known (though perhaps apocryphal) quote of Winston Churchill’s about the House of Commons: “The opposition occupies the benches in front of you, but the enemy sits behind you.” That certainly applies to Keir Starmer, whose time as prime minister has been cut short by his fellow Labour MPs. Understandably so, given that many realised almost as soon as their party was elected in 2024 that they were heading towards electoral oblivion under their useless leader. Not that you’d have known it from Wednesday’s PMQs – Starmer’s last before Andy Burnham replaces him . As Labour MP Carolyn Harris rose to ask the final question of the session, she had to fight back the tears. “I can do this!” she steeled herself. The House hushed as Starmer gave his final answer at the despatch box, before departing with “Goodbye”. As he walked out of the House...
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The Left’s constant demonisation of Reform was a ticking time bomb

When Jo Cox was murdered, a toxic political culture was blamed – but so-called progressives won’t say the same about Ann Widdecombe’s death Daily Telegraph 14/07/26 When the Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered in June 2016, there was no hesitation in naming her killer’s motive or beliefs. “Political violence does not exist in a vacuum,” wrote one Left-leaning commentator, “That’s not political point scoring, that is reality. To deny it – as some have done over the last 24 hours – is at best naïve, at worst lethal.” Jo’s life was tragically taken by a far-Right terrorist “after the most poisonous, hate-filled month in UK politics in living memory”. He meant the Brexit campaign which was paused out of respect. You will notice that no such ringing moral certitude has been permitted after the murder last week of Ann Widdecombe (even writing about her in the past tense still has an air of unreality; it’s just too sad, can it please not be true?). Devon and Cornwall Police told the public not to...
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Wealthy planning to emigrate if Miliband becomes chancellor

  Ultra-high net worth individuals look for ways to avoid possible equalisation of capital gains tax with income tax Daily Telegraph 13/07/26 Wealthy Britons are preparing to leave the country if Ed Miliband becomes chancellor and launches a new tax raid on the rich, The Telegraph can reveal. Ultra-high net worth individuals based in the UK have contacted international tax advisers looking for a way to avoid the possible equalisation of capital gains tax with income tax in the first months of Andy Burnham’s government . Mr Burnham – who has said the country has “overtaxed jobs [and] undertaxed wealth” – is widely expected to launch a review of CGT ahead of his first Budget later this year. Although the incoming Labour leader has pledged to remain within the party’s manifesto pledges on tax, including not to raise VAT, income tax or National Insurance, he is thought to be considering a range of changes to personal taxation. They could include the equalisation of CGT with income t...
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Burnham’s council house blitz is a recipe for social disharmony

  The presumptive prime minister’s plans to build more local authority homes face multiple hurdles Daily Telegraph 11/07/26 Nostalgia. Ah, that gloriously intoxicating longing for the warm glow of an imagined past that never really existed.  But then, almost anything seems better than today’s broken Britain, with its stagnant living standards, rapidly changing demographic and failing public services. The decade most fondly remembered in this regard tends to be the 1950s, when Britons were said to have “never had it so good” . It scarcely needs saying that the reality for many people back then did not live up to this sugar-coated perception of Britannia at its finest. But one thing they did seem to get right was that lots of houses were built for Britain’s fast-growing, baby-boomer generation. This was the golden age of UK housebuilding, with more than two million new dwellings built across the decade. More than half of these were council houses to replace homes destroyed in th...
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