Best Of

Good morning

This poll shows just how Starmer has failed in his first year and opened the door to Farage

With the conservatives presently dead in the water and another poll this morning in the Metro affirming the public 'do not trust any of them', the country is in a deep hole and hence the illusion Farage is the answer

I would suggest there are less than a handful of our fellow posters who actually endorse Farage but he certainly receives the wide publicity he does due to our political vacuum

Not for the first time, I'm going to disagree with you on much of this.

I'm left with a number of thoughts - had, by some miracle, Rishi Sunak been re-elected, would he now have as dire poll numbers as Starmer? Probably. Had, by some other miracle, Farage and Reform won last year's election, would he have such good numbers as he has now? Probably not.

There seemed to have been some unrealistic expectations about what an incoming Labour Government could, should or would do and, among some, there is almost a reflexive dislike of the very concept of a "Labour Government" which is up there with what you should or shouldn't put on a pizza.

Starmer had two choices - one was to be radical and unpopular from day one. We all knew restoring the public finances and trying to correct years of Conservative inertia (as an aside, my biggest condemnation of your party is not that they did the wrong thing but rather they did nothing across a range of issues) would involve pain in terms of tax rises and spending cuts and going hard on that (hampered by the OBR) would have been helpful.

The other option was to be Continuity Sunak and continue to kick the can of the difficult issues down the road. Change without change so to speak.

Starmer's problem is he has tried to do both and done neither. We have half-hearted exhortations of change backed up by continuing inertia and hamstrung, despite a large majority, by a tranche of fearful MPs suspecting their tenure on Westminster could be very short. It has disappointed those who hoped for better and confirmed the fears of those who suspected the worst.

The one saving grace for Starmer is none of his political opponents have the slightest clue how to handle the big issues from the "small boats" to social care to prison places to balancing the public finances to the huge demographic and technological challenges our economy and society has to confront and this helps Starmer and Labour enormously.

People are frustrated not because it's the wrong type of change but there appears to be no change. Another summer and the "boats" are still coming, the economy is still stagnating etc. The other side of this desire for change is the solutions most people have are either incoherent, ruinously expensive, illegal or all three predicated on it being pain for other people but not for themselves. The frustration is as much because no one can see the solutions rather than there being obvious solutions but the Government won't implement them.

Jenrick is changing up his social media strategy:

https://x.com/robertjenrick/status/1944385240127967643

Coming out as a Tory 'wet'

Nowhere near his constituency.

His main home is in Herefordshire.

Isn't Leominster the location of his Wife's family's mansion?

For those who don't remember, during the Covid pandemic he decided to ignore lockdown and travel between his various homes.

More amusingly, he criticised the Reform candidate at the last election for living in Gedling, just outside the Newark constituency.

He is an utter scumbag.

THat's a bit harsh, no? I mean, there are some utter scumbags out there who might be a bit offended at being compared to Jenrick.

I wonder what PBers thought of the lead article in today's online Daily Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/12/anti-semitism-normalised-britain-british-board-jews-israel/#comment

(it is also the lead article in the print version, for those of you who skin read a 'paper')

It's not a pleasant read, I've posted on here many times if the UK becomes unwelcome for Jews then eventually it will become unwelcome for other minorities.

One thing that has been bubbling away, and I'm not sure what the answer is, I suspect it is complex.

One thing that (rightly) is said that you cannot hold Jews responsible for the actions of the state of Israel, but in that photo in the Telegraph article (and elsewhere) you see Jewish people using the Israeli flag at antisemitism rallies which I think clouds the issue.

I think Edward Leigh (or somebody else) who is a longstanding Friend of Israel has said accusations of antisemitism are thrown when people rightly condemn the genocide in Gaza.

Do you think people holding the Palestinian flag clouds the issue on Islamophobia?

In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks and the pre-emotive anti-Israel “demonstrations” a lot of British Jews made the point that this is why Israel needs to exist. Jews need somewhere they can retreat to if things get really bad.

So I don’t think Jews waving Israeli flags means anything more than that and anyone saying it clouds the issue just wants an excuse to hate Jews.

You're saying TSE is looking for an excuse to hate Jews?
Fuxake.

Because there is one Jewish state in the world. Because whatever anyone thinks of the actions of the Israeli government, people will still support the right of that country to exist.

People, however, do not support a right for
Israel to annex territory and commit what
looks close to genocide.

And you shouldn’t assume people waving Israeli flags support such actions any more than we should assume anyone displaying the Palestinian flag supports 7 October.

The Hamas flag is NOT the flag of Palestine.

Well England seem determined to make a result of this cricket match, one way or the other…

There’s a bigger story in the Guardian. The total collapse of entry level graduate jobs. It’s mayhem out there

Universities are doomed. We need to tell our kids to go elsewhere, learn a trade, don’t take on all that debt

Yup, I flashed up the warning signs on here about a year ago and got told I was being ridiculous. I said it again a few months ago that kids today would be better off learning something practical rather than something behind a desk. Again the usual suspects told me I was being alarmist and that "junior lawyers" would still earn more than anyone who did a trade, ignoring the fact that there's only about 300 spots per year for in magic circle graduate schemes.

The talent pipeline in the UK has completely collapsed at the top of the funnel. There's hardly any junior hires for highly skilled careers and we're increasingly relying on the 2015-2019 graduate cohorts to fill mid and senior roles whole those who graduated since 2020 are struggling to get meaningful junior roles to start their careers.

Once again I'll say it, if you've got kids between 12 and 16 you should advise them to pick something practical or vocational that isn't easy to automate. I have two and one on the way, o genuinely have no idea what the world will look like by the time they're 16 and making those big life choices, I just have to hope everything is settled by then and career choices/pathways are easier.

It’s extraordinary how little this is discussed

Just one outcome is the collapse in the university sector (I know I’ve mentioned it before but look - now it’s coming true)

Kids are not going to take on £££ of debt if they 1. Learning nothing while at uni and 2. There aren’t any jobs at the end anyway

There’s a really compelling quote in that guardian article

“One of the few responses [this new graduate] has received so far was a rejection email explaining that 2,000 other people had applied for the role. “I feel very disheartened and, frankly, lied to,” Martyna said. “Both of my degrees seem useless. My parents came here from Poland, and I have £90,000 in student debt – for what?

“They told us: ‘If you don’t go to university, you could be working in McDonald’s.’ I went to university and applied to be a barista, and was rejected for lack of experience. I have considered going back to Poland.””

We have sold our kids a pup. Many unis will close. Lord knows what that will do to all the towns and cities where the uni is a major or even dominant employer

So she goes back to Poland, an economy on the up, and the UK government has to eat the £90k plus interest at some point in the future.

Glad to see you back @Sandpit.

Sometimes I’m here lurking and watching the cricket. Mostly too busy with crazy work at the moment.

Trip to Ukraine next month though, might post some updates then…

This anti-science populist bollocks is going to kill many many people.



Shaun Lintern
@ShaunLintern
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: A child has died after contracting measles in Liverpool, where public health officials fear a growing outbreak of the disease.

Full story:

https://x.com/ShaunLintern/status/1944148188773929375

I absolutely despair of those parents that have refused to have their children given the MMR vaccine over recent years while they selfishly relied on the far greater sensible actions of other parents who did assuring UK herd immunity which again protected their own children from risk! Sadly over recent years that vital herd immunity in the UK which had eliminated these horrible viral infections that can cause serious illness and complications in unvaccinated children has not been maintained due to declining vaccination rates leading to recent outbreaks.

If there is one targeted and high profile emergency Government TV/Social media health campaign that should be launched yesterday across the UK like those that were so effective in the 60s/70s and 80s on a range of safety issues to warn of the dangers its this one which should explain the symptoms and risks to children developing mumps, measles or rubella and why it was so important for them to have the very safe MMR vaccine to prevent them and the risks they posed to children. It should also add in the importance to women who plan to get pregnant to check their rubella immunity status. Especially after the cynically targeting of key groups by anti vaccing groups following the global Covid outbreak.

When the false claims that there was a link to the MMR vaccine and autism were made during Blair's government vast sums of money was spent trying to debunk the link rather than either an important health campaign explaining why the MMR vaccine was so important and how it provided herd immunity which was vital to eradicating these viruses and all the awful side effects. But not only that, sadly it also drained resources from the serious research into the causes and genetic links to autism that were making great inroads at the time that would have clearly shown that there was no link to the MMR vaccine other than a simple a coincidence in the timing of children getting it and some parents starting to notice the early symptoms of autism around the time their children got the vaccine.

Surprised by the chat on the last thread suggesting that poor people don't use EVs. In Edinburgh it's primarily people in the lowest income deciles who get around in them.

Yup, same in Manchester and Sheffield, you're much more likely to see a Ford Focus/Kuga EV than a Mercedes EV (of which there are plenty.)

I am sure the same PBers who were complaining about the government subsidising EVs complained vigorously when the Tories did the same.

Ful disclosure, this household has two EVs.

No, even poorer. The buses that trundle around Muirhouse, Pilton, Niddrie are electric. You've also got the tram, and I got rescued at 1am by an electric taxi too.

The fact is we have spent very public little cash on the infrastructure for personal EVs - we can't get one because we live in a flat and the council haven't installed any charging points round here. My partner's work does not have a charging point, despite being NHS.

Oddly, the Highlands are actually really good for them, with most accommodation finding a way to get you charged up and quite a few public chargers available. In the end, everyone in the UK lives in a house, so driveway charging is only a very small hurdle to getting there - just needs some cash.

Even my parents are considering it.

The council have been doing a rolling replacement of lampposts and lights in this bit of Glasgow - which I would have thought was a good opportunity to fit some charging points for the tenements. But no sign of any.

Is not Scotland a law unto itself here?

AFAIK ( Mr Tesla may know more, as he will have researched the inferior Plan B ) Scotland has a larger selection of Local Authority provided and free points, but it has been in decline, and (I presume) funding is either from Holyrood, or via the Block Grant or the Barnet process.

(I have no idea how much has been funded in England, but I do try and keep an eye on moved to obstruct our pavements, which are pedestrian spaces, with charging cable trip hazards.)

How big are the wheelchair spaces on all those electric buses?

Councils are struggling to do basic services, so I have no surprise that there is no cash for more expensive charging lampposts.

As for why they are struggling, I have the answer. Grit Bin removal row here in the shire, SNP councillor trying to score points, I noted the £34m a year not provided to the shire by Holyrood because funding is prioritised to the central belt, and he posted an "info"graphic that Westminster is underfunding Holyrood.

So if Aberdeenshire are pulling grit bins, and Glasgow aren't installing charging posts, the fault lies with the English. Hi.

Hey, English councils are also chronically underfunded and have been for 15 years so I don't know why it's only suddenly an issue in Aberdeenshire...

It isn't suddenly an issue - the cuts get worse every year. Council tax up 10% this year, and next year the cuts needed will be the biggest yet. Central government stopped properly funding councils in England as a policy when Osborne was chancellor. In Scotland the government spend lots of things like free bus passes but rig the funding formula so that their supporters get the cash and the far away places get less.

Part of why this country is so broken is that council services are crumbling away. Unlike in other parts of the public sector there isn't much that can be saved through efficiencies or structure - that's already happened. So either we fund things or communities get left to their own devices at higher cost.

There’s an example down here in SE London of how a bit more money can totally transform a place. This morning I’m in Beckenham Place park having dropped off my son who’s having a picnic here. A decade ago the place was crumbling. Pleasant enough with nice areas of parkland and woodland, but classic public land. Littered and unloved.

Now on a Sunday morning it’s heaving. The car park is full, hundreds of people ticking into coffee and pastries in the courtyard of the old stables, and the most incredible landscaped gardening you’ll find in any public amenity. Sissinghurst level.



All thanks to a heritage lottery grant in 2014 and some mayoral funding more recently, plus Lewisham deciding to prioritise it and invite businesses in which presumably pay decent rents to ply their trade.

Crystal Palace park is another example of how it can be done.

Those saying local public services are a bottomless money pit forget that only parts of it - social care mainly - are so voracious. Civic beauty really doesn’t cost that much by comparison.