Prime Minister Andy Burnham starts with low expectations – politicalbetting.com
Prime Minister Andy Burnham starts with low expectations – politicalbetting.com
With Andy Burnham set to become prime minister later today, here's a round-up of our latest data% thinking Burnham will be a [X] prime minister…Great: 2%Good: 19%Average: 20%Poor: 14%Terrible: 19%yougov.com/en-gb/articl…
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Haigh managed to give a massive unconditional pay rise to train drivers with absolutely no reforms and got in a big bust up with DP World that put at risk billions in investment and Big Ange was failing massively at getting any 'ouse building going.
I may not approve of their replacements
https://xcancel.com/PolitlcsUK
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cgrkv8e8l9qt
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/jul/20/andy-burnham-new-prime-minister-pm-keir-starmer-labour-no-10-downing-street-speech-cabinet-uk-politics-latest-news-updates
(You don't have to explain "great".)
Rayner should be kept busy with something inconsequential. She will be on manoeuvres soon enough.
The worst AG in history is gone
Key now is COE
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/jul/20/andy-burnham-new-prime-minister-pm-keir-starmer-labour-no-10-downing-street-speech-cabinet-uk-politics-latest-news-updates#img-1
spend with his familyacting as defense council for lots of "upstanding indviduals" who might have been accused of being a bit naughty.Reeves gone as Chancellor the least surprising news of this reshuffle
On the flip side I thought the Blair and Cameron government had plenty of talented people.
The nation is desperate for genuine change, and it won't be to everyone's advantage or taste, but we cannot go on like this.
As indeed they said in the 70's.
Dear God...
Dear God...
If you were planning, for instance, to suck up every piece of space detectable EM output in the Greater Beijing area, you might want a big blob of cache that you could query and pull down the sub elements you want rather than have to bring all of it back.
Can you say why it is, or will you let me define it for everyone?
So COE is important to you Big G, because Red Ed was the only Labour person coming into government with a plan - that was to implement the Conservative Party Net Zero Plans and policy.
As Kemi’s leading cheerleader on PB, you concede she must respond to change, and get the response right?
For example - does Kemi Badenoch now need to more clearly spell out how she will open up the North Sea, just as Farage has done? When Labour have no new drilling, then “opening up the North Sea to lower British energy bills” is pushing against an open door, with spin without even having much detail or policy. However what Labour will do now is token “opening up the North Sea” on just 2 licenses stuck in legal limbo, and they will call this the “sensible, pragmatic mixed approach for Britain.” Does this shoot dead the fox Kemi’s has set running? In response does Kemi now urgently need to explain exactly how she will go further - redefine that difference - so Labour does not appear on the same page she is - otherwise she will surrender the clear blue water she built up on this?
Its wait and see on policy and appointments. The couple of initial things he has done like cancelling the
BlockbusterId Card System, I said I thought was very sensible. Getting rid of Reeves was always going to happen, some of the others he has sacked were very poor in that they were out of their depth in the job they were given e.g. Peter Kyle.If he gives Rayner the health job for instance that will be very stupid. I personally would put Streeting back in there, he was doing ok in a really tough gig.
To avoid standing against a bin presumably.
The attacks on Farage will be blunted if Burnham appoints a convicted fraudster to his cabinet..
Now, given that the housing market has been a failed market for some time, freezing rents might make sense as an interim measure as a plan for a massive intervention in the market takes shape - such as council house-building ramping up to >100k a year. But 100k houses a year is going to cost big money.
Edit:- Patrick Vallance resigns as science minister
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/patrick-vallance-quits-science-minister
I am not sure what happened there. It was a very good appointment on the face of it by Starmer but he was totally invisible for the past 2 years. You might say he was getting on with the job, but all these announcements for AI, data centres, R&D, etc, it never seem he is part of.
Maybe the Guardian story is true they get rid of the Department for Science and Technology.
The optics of linking himself to that era of Labour politics will not help Burnham establish himself as the future.
Presumably landlords costs wouldn’t be frozen ?
Still, kicking landlords is never going to go down badly with the voters.
But wait till we get to the appointments.
If you restrict the price of anything long enough you will create a shortage. Doesn’t matter if it’s toilet rolls in Venezuela or rental properties in Nuneaton.
On this she will support him whilst he will have problems from some behind him and the greens
That will make his pledge to reduce homelessness harder.
Bond market not in meltdown yet.
Sadly no-one actually said 'next slide please' during the ceremony...
Edit: I see we have, and Lammy is out of government.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg0xlrvv4mo
So that is all of Starmer's "big" outside signing gone. Again, really weird, there is absolutely no doubt Timpson really believes in his cause, the whole Timpson family are extremely good people, he has built a very successful but ethical business and it seems like he got eaten by the blob or something.
interesting that Callaghan and Healey were approaching monetarism too as a way out of the 1970's doldrums. No doubt they would not have been as single minded about it, and they may have looked to the working class areas that were destroyed a bit more, but it was coming.
But important to note that the OBR will not have verified how much revenue will be raised by any tax increases - they normally take weeks to do this - they certainly won't be doing it overnight.
So is he going to announce eg rises in CGT and claim they will pay for his giveaways - even though not verified by OBR.
Bus fare caps also being considered
Not a good sign, if Burnham is going to be all in on Big NGO from the start.
I saw his suggestion on international aid through a similar lens, where will the money actually be going?
That was also the role given to Vallance, but again it seems like trying to unlock the levers of government too hard to drive change.
You need to ramp up to 500K extra. And more.
Freezing rents would stop even more property construction.
National publication writes that La Albiceleste ‘lost with heads held high’ despite ungainly scenes after World Cup final defeat by Spain
Argentina’s press has praised its national team’s behaviour during and after Sunday’s World Cup final defeat by Spain, despite international condemnation.
Clarín, Argentina’s leading newspaper, described La Albiceleste as having been “polite and respectful, despite a few unfortunate isolated incidents in the last match”.
“On the field and off, the Argentine team displayed a range of values that are hard to find these days,” Silvia Fesquet, Clarín’s editor, gushed, adding that the players “did not speak ill of their rivals or try to justify their mistakes by blaming others”.
Clarín’s rival, La Nación, also praised the Argentine players’ dignity in defeat.
“The team obtained the most difficult thing: the affection and recognition of the people, even without being champions,” ran the headline of La Nación’s main report on the final.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/07/20/argentina-newspaper-polite-respectful-players-remarkable/
No they are not.
If for no other reason than the government has stuff in the pipeline already to add to them e.g. a new national database of all landlords which landlords will have to register with and pay a fee for.