Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

You don’t have to be John Betjeman to know where this Labour story will end – because we’ve heard it before link Daily Telegraph 29/06/26   It’s a brave politician who chooses to give his first keynote speech in a museum, but for Andy Burnham it seemed somehow appropriate. For his entire speech was something of a museum piece, an artefact redolent of the Michael Foot days of Labour politics: strikes and trade union banners, class warfare in Parliament and ranting Leftists on the streets. The public sector, nationalisation, the unions, the state, splashing around public money – these are Burnham’s tools to make things better . We know how this story ends. After all, Burnham evoked the era himself, even daring to give Foot’s donkey jacket a mention. In perhaps the most revealing phrase of the speech, he identified the “foundations of working class aspiration” as a “council home” and “good technical education”, a post-war image if ever there was one: the Labour vision of vast num...

  Incoming prime minister sets out his plan to boost the economy through devolution Daily Telegraph 28/06/26 Link Andy Burnham will set out a 10-year plan to transform the economy as he prepares to enter Downing Street. In a sign he intends to fight at least two elections as prime minister, Mr Burnham will argue on Monday that he needs a decade to overhaul Britain , strip power from Whitehall and deliver “good growth in every postcode”. He will lay out plans for a “No 10 North”, moving part of his operation outside Westminster to push through a radical programme of English devolution , transferring decisions over spending from mandarins in London to powerful regional mayors. In his first major speech since returning to Parliament in this month’s Makerfield by-election, Mr Burnham will commit to greater state control of Britain’s energy and water supplies. He will also pledge a new programme of council house building and infrastructure projects outside the South-East as part of eff...

  Andies seem to be as gullible, docile and brainwashed as the Moonies. For the country’s sake, let’s hope they snap out of it Daily Telegraph 28/06/26 Memories were stirred last week of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the Korean Christian convert who claimed to be the Messiah. The cult around him appears something of a template for that around Andy Burnham, who unless fate takes an interesting turn will soon become our prime minister. When Mr Burnham’s media operation (all cults need one) ensured he was photographed at Westminster taking a selfie with legions of Labour MPs behind him , it reminded one of the mass weddings Mr Moon would conduct for his besotted Moonies. The mindless, other-worldly grins on the faces behind Mr Burnham suggested a marriage that the cultists – let us call them “Andies” – must also hope will be made in heaven. But then, if suddenly you thought that you might not after all be facing certain long-term unemployment, you would look happy, too. The Saviour was...

Badenoch touches a nerve in the Commons Telegraph Front Bencher 25/06/26 It’s hard to know where to begin with Bridget Phillipson’s response to Kemi Badenoch’s PMQs barb. The Leader of the Opposition described the Education Secretary as a “spiteful class warrior”, prompting outcry from the perpetually-outraged Left and an intervention from the Speaker. How else to describe a minister who imposed VAT on private school fees midway through the academic year, guaranteeing maximum disruption to pupils, leaving schools little time to adapt, and almost certainly raising less in net revenue than anticipated? Perhaps Badenoch touched a nerve. Since Labour took office, over 100 independent schools have closed. Universities are on the brink of a funding crisis, while nurseries are grappling with the reality of an expanded “free” childcare offer rolled out with little consideration for how it would be paid. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act is stripping academies of their freedoms and disco...

  New proposals to prioritise ‘trusted’ news outlets like the BBC online will be chilling for free expression Daily Telegraph 24/06/26 Link Britain’s ruling class has a new saviour in Andy Burnham , but on the 10th anniversary of Brexit, that darkest of days for the bien-pensant , they still want answers, and they are still seeking revenge. Why do voters remain so bigoted, so nationalistic, so ignorant, so susceptible to fake news, so unwilling to parrot the groupthink propounded by their betters, they ask themselves? Why do ordinary folk still not listen to experts? Why did the public turn so ferociously against Sir Keir Starmer, a good man, a human rights lawyer for Gaia’s sake! The elite’s conceit, their delusion, is off the charts again. They cannot fathom why Middle England is so preoccupied with what, from their rarefied technocratic vantage point, are exaggerated, divisive, dangerous issues such as migration, Islamist extremism, social decay or elevated energy prices. Wouldn...

  Colleagues praised the Prime Minister’s record to the rafters while forcing him from office after less than two years Daily Telegraph 23/06/26 Link It’s the humbug and hypocrisy that is so infuriating. When the Conservatives topple a leader it is a “psycho-drama” that endangers the stability of the country. Labour exploited this for all they were worth at the 2024 general election. On the threshold of No 10 as he took over as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer promised a “return of politics to public service”, implying that his Conservative predecessors had all been in it for themselves. On Monday, as he endured the same fate as half-a-dozen previous premiers, it was Sir Keir’s turn to wonder what he had done to deserve it . Within hours of his resignation statement, he was being praised to the rafters by the very people who had plunged the knife into his back. Like Caesar, it was a political assassination by his friends, not enemies. Et tu Rachel? A prime minister with a majority ...