Best Of

Labour deputy leadership contender Lucy Powell, who was fired by Sir Keir Starmer in his cabinet reshuffle, has criticised "unforced errors" by the government over welfare.

In her first broadcast interview since being sacked, she told the BBC's Nick Robinson attempts to cut disability benefits and winter fuel payments had left voters questioning "whose side we are on".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly6gevkn7zo

Well I have no doubt which side Labour are on.

Labour are on the side of non-workers and against workers.

Plenty of disabled folk work. Some of my most effective colleagues are in wheelchairs or have significant mental health issues.

(I'm not disputing your sentiment but some of the chat around disabled claimants has been a bit unedifying, particularly as the criteria and adjustments for disability benefits are quite different to standard UC etc).

Well said. More generally it's amazing how many people even on here think UC recipients are all sitting on their thumbs. Many are in work.

The problem with UC and other benefits is 'drift'. What starts out as a scheme with lofty purpose starts being bent and twisted by the various legal challenges usually along the lines of 'why is my group left out'. So that group is added which creates more exceptions which allows more challenges.

UC has allowed a number of businesses to survive which shouldn't have, due to playing the indirect subsidy game especially with zero hours contracts. There is a question here if this is a business or a lifestyle. The DWP seems to think it is a lifestyle.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyl90ry2j7o

That isn't UC, it's Access to Work which can pay a grant to help disabled people work, including running their own business. The gentleman in question had a support worker paid for 5 days a week, which has been cut to 1. Without knowing the details, I would wonder if he couldn't arrange his time a bit better so he only needs the support worker 1 or 2 days a week

Phase two update
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1968239762730611037?s=19

Given the wording of the question (Do you approve or disapprove of the government's record to date?), the dire ratings are no surprise; nor is the slight worsening of their position given events in recent weeks. For example, I would be in the 'disapprove' column, but would still vote Labour given the alternatives, and I don't think I'm alone.

The point with this question is the wording has been consistent since 2010 so we can track it against previous governments.
At 11/72 its far worse than anything Boris managed even during partygate, pinchergate and resignation
Versus Sunak his government was worse regarded net score wise only in the last pre election (12/74) and in his first ever in Oct 22 in the aftermath of Truss it was identical 11/72
Its worse than the Truss government in the initial aftermath of the mini budget, after the crisis and polling collapse, but slightly above the final two Truss ratings which fell to 6/82 as she resigned
Its analogous to the fall of Theresa Mays government May to July 2017 with ratings bouncing around this level, once dipping below at 9/72

In my opinion its pretty much irrecoverable for Labour in terms of leading the next government

In which case it's obviously also terminal for the Conservative Party who are doing even worse which means you are predicting a certain Farage premiership? I can't see it........

To go from 6 MPs to 320 would be quite a feat. He's also likely to face some scrutiny over the next three years like his presumptive Minister of Health producing evidence that the Covid vaccine wiped out the Royal Family.

He has the thicko's vote that's obvious. But are there enough of them to take this seven times loser over the line?

Your last paragraph slurs many millions who support Reform and is exactly the attitude that delivered Brexit

I do not want to see a Reform government anymore than you do, but in order for that to happen a recovery in the conservatives and labour is needed and that is far from a given

I agree with you - lets not call voters stupid. Whether the issue is Brexit or Red Wallers or Reformers.

However, there is a very clear and present danger from misinformation and open lies being propagated on social media. We have fragmented information channels so that it is very easy for people only to hear what they want to hear, with algorithms pushing more of the same.

When the information being pushed out is a lie - such as the % of migrants committing crimes - then we have a big problem.

Random observation - my wife never really watched old Top Gear so we've been going through it on iPlayer for the last couple of weeks in the evenings. Firstly, it's genuinely great entertainment, even for non-car enthusiasts.

Secondly, I think Top Gear coming off the air and moving to a less watched streaming programme has contributed to the political fracturing of the nation. Top Gear used to be watched by basically everyone in the country and it was a constant of three middle aged blokes telling the emperor he had no clothes on and it meant the rest of the country didn't feel completely insane for having common sense.

I don't think there's been a show like it since then that has captured the cultural zeitgeist and is watched by basically the whole country that just tells it like it is and isn't afraid of being "cancelled".

There's a sanity check that's been missing.

I have never watched Top Gear. Maybe I don't have much common sense! Watching a programme about cars sounds like watching a programme about ironing boards as far as I'm concerned.

Top Gear was never really about the cars. My wife isn't a massive car enthusiast but she absolutely loves it because it's just fun.

Random observation - my wife never really watched old Top Gear so we've been going through it on iPlayer for the last couple of weeks in the evenings. Firstly, it's genuinely great entertainment, even for non-car enthusiasts.

Secondly, I think Top Gear coming off the air and moving to a less watched streaming programme has contributed to the political fracturing of the nation. Top Gear used to be watched by basically everyone in the country and it was a constant of three middle aged blokes telling the emperor he had no clothes on and it meant the rest of the country didn't feel completely insane for having common sense.

I don't think there's been a show like it since then that has captured the cultural zeitgeist and is watched by basically the whole country that just tells it like it is and isn't afraid of being "cancelled".

There's a sanity check that's been missing.

I agree. I don't even drive and I loved Top Gear!

The whole communal experience of culture has largely disappeared. Sport remains as the only unifier these days; I suspect that is partly why the flag is having a resurgence.

https://x.com/cllr_thomas/status/1967894303151206627?s=19

Reform councillor walks out of local council meeting because they didnt acknowledge the death of a US political figure.
Odd. Its Torfaen council, why would they?

Indication though of what a Reform government is going to like and driven by. It is UK's Trump 2.0 and it is going to be disaster for this country and its institutions and all those dancing around in joyful anticipation of Nigel as PM are profoundly wrong.

As much as we love our centrist Dads here, my thoughts on Reform are they will drift back as they drive away the Centre Right Grandpas and Grandmas

How Reform plan to win and how Reform will govern are two separate questions. Neither has a clear answer and both should be issues for intense journalistic scrutiny.

The second question is more important. Assuming we can put on one side a Reform government going Trumpian and seeking to prevent further free and fair elections (and IMO we can dismiss that) then the probability is that they will govern in such a way as to try to win a subsequent election in 4/5 years time. This imposes a very considerable limit on what they can do. They will continue to need the votes of people who rely on pensions, low inflation, NHS, housing including social housing, free education, not having a series of fiscal/debt crises, the welfare state and a reasonable supply of jobs provided by someone else. (Try asking the people of Clacton what they want in addition to fewer brown faces).

This describes a high spend and high tax society in a social democracy. This is possible to do with fairly tightly closed borders, as is clearly Reform's policy. I suggest this (underneath all sorts of evasive rhetoric) is exactly what they will try to do.

Whether it can be done is a question for Reform to answer, but not only Reform.

Random observation - my wife never really watched old Top Gear so we've been going through it on iPlayer for the last couple of weeks in the evenings. Firstly, it's genuinely great entertainment, even for non-car enthusiasts.

Secondly, I think Top Gear coming off the air and moving to a less watched streaming programme has contributed to the political fracturing of the nation. Top Gear used to be watched by basically everyone in the country and it was a constant of three middle aged blokes telling the emperor he had no clothes on and it meant the rest of the country didn't feel completely insane for having common sense.

I don't think there's been a show like it since then that has captured the cultural zeitgeist and is watched by basically the whole country that just tells it like it is and isn't afraid of being "cancelled".

There's a sanity check that's been missing.

I have never watched Top Gear. Maybe I don't have much common sense! Watching a programme about cars sounds like watching a programme about ironing boards as far as I'm concerned.

Dunno...
"This one, Jeremy, goes from 0-190 degrees in 6.8 seconds!"
(Top Gear wasn't much about cars, in latter years. I also wasn't a watcher, but I know that much)

ETA: Ah, ironing boards sorry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ironing