Best Of

We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.

We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.

But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.

This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.

No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.

Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...

On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.

On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.

On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.

It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.

Etc etc.

Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.

My two biggies are Housing and Energy.

Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.

Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.

Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.

Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.

Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing.
A crime against future generations .

10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.

As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.

I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.

Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.

We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?

If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.

The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.