Best Of

Burnham’s biggest issue is going to be the lack of money.

So what can he do that is effective but doesn’t cost much?

Some ideas

- Merge NI into Income tax - and *save* money. Genuinely.
- Create internal consultancy within government. So IT and reorgs are done by PAYE civil servants rather than £xxxx per day outsiders.
- Introduce regulatory cost provisions - if you (in a government department) make reactions more expensive for people/companies, a larger portion of your budget gets hypothecated to enforcement. Suddenly, £18 windows will look at lot less sexy.
- Bigger fines for illegal employment, shared with the victims (the employees).
- Break the “veil” of using contracting as a way of removing responsibility for employees. Looking at you, Deliveroo.

Means test any universal benefit so that those with income over 200k don't get it

Better still give everyone an opt out option.

Sock of hearing rich people sneering they don't need this or that but doing feck all to redistribute it.

Make all benefits taxable. Means testing tends to be inefficient, ineffective, mean and introduces lots of expensive problems.

Burnham’s biggest issue is going to be the lack of money.

So what can he do that is effective but doesn’t cost much?

Some ideas

- Merge NI into Income tax - and *save* money. Genuinely.
- Create internal consultancy within government. So IT and reorgs are done by PAYE civil servants rather than £xxxx per day outsiders.
- Introduce regulatory cost provisions - if you (in a government department) make reactions more expensive for people/companies, a larger portion of your budget gets hypothecated to enforcement. Suddenly, £18 windows will look at lot less sexy.
- Bigger fines for illegal employment, shared with the victims (the employees).
- Break the “veil” of using contracting as a way of removing responsibility for employees. Looking at you, Deliveroo.

Means test any universal benefit so that those with income over 200k don't get it

Better still give everyone an opt out option.

Sock of hearing rich people sneering they don't need this or that but doing feck all to redistribute it.

Means testing something you’ll give to 99% of the population, is expensive bureaucracy that costs time and money, for negligible cost savings.

The big savings come by merging employee NI into income tax, which has the side effect of taxing ‘rich’ pensioners. You can do it 2% per year and most people in work wouldn’t notice.

Should have been done 2 years ago using the WFA as a sweetener

Burnham’s biggest issue is going to be the lack of money.

So what can he do that is effective but doesn’t cost much?

Some ideas

- Merge NI into Income tax - and *save* money. Genuinely.
- Create internal consultancy within government. So IT and reorgs are done by PAYE civil servants rather than £xxxx per day outsiders.
- Introduce regulatory cost provisions - if you (in a government department) make reactions more expensive for people/companies, a larger portion of your budget gets hypothecated to enforcement. Suddenly, £18k windows will look at lot less sexy.
- Bigger fines for illegal employment, shared with the victims (the employees).
- Break the “veil” of using contracting as a way of removing responsibility for employees. Looking at you, Deliveroo.

🟢NEW: Zack Polanski has suggested he did not pay council tax while living on a narrowboat because of living arrangements resulting from “financial hardship”

In a witness statement to the Greater London Authority (GLA), the Green Party leader also admitted that he should have taken “greater care” over his tax arrangements while living on the vessel in an east London marina

City Hall has decided not to launch an investigation into Polanski's council tax arrangements

The monitoring officer said that the matter related to "private circumstances" rather the Polanski's role as a London Assembly member

They said the decision "does not make any finding on the merits of the underlying concerns”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/06/18/zack-polanski-financial-hardship-council-tax-green-party-uk/

Morning all! Let us hope that this time tomorrow Restore and Reform are tearing at each other and Burnham is on (yet another) train to London!

Just for interest, but do London Assembly members get paid?

The Mayor’s salary is £170,282. The salary of an Assembly Member is currently £66,390 per year, except for the Statutory Deputy Mayor which is £118,124 and the Chair of the Assembly which is £79,617.

https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/governance-and-spending/spending-money-wisely/salaries-expenses-benefits-and-workforce-information

Polanski re-setting the poverty line at an income of £66,390. A grifter all day long. The coming Green party civil war should be fun.

I doubt it. No-one supports the Greens because they know or care about economics, finance or even simple mathematics.

They do so to feel good about themselves. Just as people in the middle ages used to wear hairshirts.

It's emotional, not rational or even vaguely realistic.

Tosh!

The idea that people choose the Greens to be either smug or because they are naïve is nonsense.

People who are disillusioned and frustrated with the current Parties and where they think the UK is going wrong are just looking for an alternative and be it Reform, Green or in a way Independence, which also swings with sentiment about Westminster, these Parties represent change.

Attacks like this do little but console people who don’t like Polanski but won’t move those voting for him.

In an odd way he’s like Trump with his supporters.

They like what he says but don’t take it literally.

They back him because they want to cut immigration but know the Mexicans aren’t paying for the Wall.

Peter.

I think Burnham will win and then go on to get the crown tbh.

Will his popularity survive contact with the throne though ?

Yes, yes, no.

Question is- then what?

We could keep pinballing from Great New Hope to Great New Hope for a very long time.

I don't think there will be an opportunity to change leader again, it would look daft. And I think Burnham is a better politician than Starmer and so won't sink as low in the public's estimation.

Labour will have broken through the barrier though and deposed a sitting PM. Once that's happened, they could do it again and again and ....