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Good morning

What a mess Labour are in with Starmer and Reeves making Truss look good and delivering a slow motion economic disaster and turning in on themselves

Many would sit back with a smug expression but not me

This is a deadly serious crisis for the country and we have 3 more years of it

What makes you think only 3 more years of it?

It is highly likely that the next government of any colour will struggle as much. The demographic challenges, the run down nature of all public services, the desolation of town centres, the stagnant productivity, the rule of the pluto-gerontocracy over the over-burdened young, the lack of any economic strength outside financial services in London, the military and environmental challenges etc.

None of these end when Starmer and Reeves go, to be replaced by Farage and Tice. Sure, we will fly a few more flags as the ship sinks ever lower in the water, but there won't be a magic cure. We are 10 years on from Farage's last magic cure of Brexit and look how that has improved the nation.

Now Labour have arrived at favouring tge WASPI women, they really have got to the "we'll just spaff public money on any old chancers" stage. Depressing it took less than 18 months. They just cannot say no.

To be fair, I *hope* that the WASPI review will be 'yes, we have now looked at the new information - as we are required to do - but no, there is no change to the decision'.

But I may just be being overly optimistic.

Politically it's probably better for this government to let the judicial review run with the likely finding that the pension age increase implementation was illegal, even though it will cost more than to compensate WASPI now.

Which is what your "yes, we have now looked at the new information - as we are required to do - but no, there is no change to the decision" actually means, and why they might do it.

Sorry, how would they find the Implementation was illegal when WASPI have lost every previous court case and the ombudsman spoke about maladministration only over a decade after the law was changed ?

It also said it was only a recommendation, it could not compel the govt, and there was no obligation on the govt to tell people about changes to the benefit system

My pension age has changed twice. I’ve had no letter. Am I entitled to a handout

Most unpopular PM in history fans please explain

No PM would be popular right now, especially so if they were trying to do the right thing and get the country back on track.

He has tried planning reform but effots appear to have stalled. He has tried welfare reform but ended up with a bill to spend more. What else is there? What is it that you think he is doing to get us 'back on track'?

FPT.

Planning hasn't stalled - its getting done by end of the year. Renters rights bill has passed - huge deal for people who rent (ie no one on this forum). Bringing railways back into public ownership. NHS waiting lists falling (not much but a little). Got onshore wind going again.

But the biggest thing i think is we have a sensible chancellor who is grappling with the difficult fiscal decisions rather than doing unfunded tax cuts and pretending all will be okay.

They completely messed up welfare reform though.

I don't hate SKS.

But I think him and Reeves are caught in this loop, where they are just reacting - in particular on the fiscal side.

Fiscal hole... need to fill it... cut spending... raise taxes... ohhh... economic growth has slowed and now have a fiscal hole...

Rinse and repeat.

It's made worse by the government's desire to appease Trump. As China has shown, there is no appeasing Trump. The only way you win concessions is to stand up to him. SKS (and the Foreign Office, I suspect) think that dealing with Trump is like dealing with any normal, rational economic actor, and it's not.

SKS and Reeves need to take a step back.

I would give them two pieces of advice.

Firstly, properly fund the criminal justice system, so that visible crimes like shoplifting stop being endemic.

Secondly, look at what can be reformed to get economic growth moving. And I'd start with the property system in the UK: I would significatly loosen up plannning restrictions, and reform (ideally eliminate) stamp duty and replace it with some kind of property tax (land value or equivalent). This would also have the pleasant effect of getting rid of the absurd abuse of the stamp duty system at the high end where companies own houses, and then the company is sold, therefore avoiding tax.

Off topic - my son works in retail. Today his place of work was robbed for the 4th time in as many weeks: on 3 occasions it's been shoplifters. Today it was a group of men in balaclavas with a van. My son tackled one of them and got some of the goods back. And yes he's been told - by me and others - not to do this because his safety and life are more important. But he finds it infuriating because even in leafy Hampstead crime is out of control. His bike has been stolen 3 times in 3 years. That's in addition to the brake levers, wheels and axle being taken on other occasions. Tesco is regularly robbed. Now his place of work. Etc.,. And the police are completely uninterested.

This cannot go on. Security staff can't do anything. CCTV is there but is no use if no-one investigates.

I see people fare-dodging on the tube every time I visit London now. Used to be unusual in terms of noticing it. Must have happened less frequently so you weren't aware of it.

Fare dodging is down on previous years and number of prosecutions is up:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g8jvwz4m1o

Theres a difference between crime and perceptions.

That is certainly true. And, of course, the nature of crime changes all the time. There are crimes that were very common 25 years ago that are essentially unknown today (nobody gets their car broken into because someone wants to steal the stereo, and the number of burglaries has collapsed).

On the other hand, identity theft and online fraud are through the roof, and on the ONS's own numbers incidents of shoplifting are at the highest level since the current reporting standards were introduced in 20003. (And were up 20% last year, which is a pretty big jump.)

There is a problem in the UK - started by the coalition government in 2010 - that spending on criminal justice (police, courts and the like) has been cut to the bone.

It's such a shame that the current administration - run by the former Director of Public Prosecutions - seems so uninterested in solving the issue.