Best Of

Blimey that's looking hot next week. UK record June temperature = 35.6°C Forecast for Heathrow next Wednesday = 39°C. Same again on Thursday.

Another record is going to be not just broken but smashed.

Our daughter has just come back from a holiday in Marrakech with temperatures of between 41 and 48 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's utterly ridiculous.

There should be a post apocalyptic movie where things are mostly fine, but demonstrating we now have a lot of places that cannot sustain human life at basically any level without the aid of modern technology, not just unable to maintain modern populations levels.

Dubai...?

Anyway, it does look like the question is not whether the June record will be obliterated (spoiler - it will) but whether the 40.3C from 2022 will be broken. Given that was supposed to be something like a 8000 year return...

Yes, only the most bonkers are denying the reality of Climate Change now.

Burnham will quickly emerge as the most compelling figure in Western politics other than Trump.

He will be fresher than Macron, have a stronger domestic position than Merz, run a more important country than Carney and have more international relevance than Meloni.

If he plays his cards right, he could be PM for a decade.

Burnham would also be the most leftwing leader of the G7. Ten years of Burnham as PM and the UK would be heading towards socialism

and the next thing we know, we would find all our healthcare needs being met for free?

Burnham would be the most leftwing PM in my lifetime, CCHQ will already preparing the attack ads on his tax rises

I am old enough to remember Burnham as a Blairite.

His lack of consistency will be an issue

What he does or does not do in the next two to three years is what he will be judged on at the next election, not any consistency (or lack thereof) with a Government of what is already two decades ago.

You only have to look at his rapid WASPI u turn during the by election to see how consistency might still be questioned.

His original WASPI comment was fecking stupid and would have been ruinously expensive for no good reason.

Rapidly u-turning on stupid, expensive mistakes is better than what we have often had in recent years of digging your heels in, dragging it out, and then u-turning.

Blimey that's looking hot next week. UK record June temperature = 35.6°C Forecast for Heathrow next Wednesday = 39°C. Same again on Thursday.

Another record is going to be not just broken but smashed.

Our daughter has just come back from a holiday in Marrakech with temperatures of between 41 and 48 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's utterly ridiculous.

There should be a post apocalyptic movie where things are mostly fine, but demonstrating we now have a lot of places that cannot sustain human life at basically any level without the aid of modern technology, not just unable to maintain modern populations levels.

Dubai...?

Anyway, it does look like the question is not whether the June record will be obliterated (spoiler - it will) but whether the 40.3C from 2022 will be broken. Given that was supposed to be something like a 8000 year return...

Yes, only the most bonkers are denying the reality of Climate Change now.

I've never been sceptical of Climate Change since reading all the papers in 1990 for a university project but I think you can still be sceptical about the actions of the government.

It seems we will have to adapt, and adapt fast. Much faster than most climate models suggested, at least in Western Europe. This seems to me much more important for the UK than worrying about stupid CCS projects or the like.

Burnham will quickly emerge as the most compelling figure in Western politics other than Trump.

He will be fresher than Macron, have a stronger domestic position than Merz, run a more important country than Carney and have more international relevance than Meloni.

If he plays his cards right, he could be PM for a decade.

Burnham would also be the most leftwing leader of the G7. Ten years of Burnham as PM and the UK would be heading towards socialism

and the next thing we know, we would find all our healthcare needs being met for free?

Burnham would be the most leftwing PM in my lifetime, CCHQ will already preparing the attack ads on his tax rises

I am old enough to remember Burnham as a Blairite.

Nah that was the other Andy. I remember him as a Brownite

I reckon Burnham PM by end of July.

Seems unlikely that he would be installed as PM just as the Commons goes into recess. It basically has to be now or September.

Recess really isn't a consideration other than delaying his first PMQs.

Except that Burnham won't be able to introduce any legislation for three months by which time some of the sheen will have come off. I'd expect him to want to introduce something suitably totemic quickly. He'd effectively be running a zombie government for three months.

It takes time to actually write legislation. He needs time to flesh out his plans and have the draft bills ready.

Unlike at a GE, he hasn't had access to the Civil Service to prepare

As I said earlier. If Starmer expects no contest and if he wants to do what is best for the Country and the Labour Party he should arrange to leave office on 22nd July the day the Summer Recess starts. Burnham will then have until early September to get his policies, his Cabinet and his PR in place and hopefully avoid the sorts of unforced mistakes that have dogged the last 3 PMs.