Not even close to a full moon but some are baying at it as night draws in:
Nigel Farage
@Nigel_Farage · 35m What we witnessed today was deeply troubling to anyone who cares about our democracy.
Make no mistake, this really is a coup.
There must be a general election immediately.
Tell me you don’t understand how the UK constitution works without admitting your lack of knowledge out loud.
I do hope that Farage’s request for £5m is confirms as that means his £5m is a payment so subject to £3m of rather overdue tax
There must be some tiny little sweetener in the budget costing £3m that the Chancellor can thank Mr Farage for - ensuring the Battersea Dogs Home gets a tax break or something similar....
MAGA congressman shilling on behalf of credibly accused rapists (yet again).
As a former prosecutor, I understand the importance of protecting Americans in times of crisis. The US Constitution is the greatest protection in the world for its citizens. The Tate brothers are American citizens and so they deserve full American Constitutional protections - which means innocent until proven guilty. No American court has charged them with a crime despite years of false alarms and innuendos. They’ve been deplatformed, debanked, arrested, and still no convictions - something President Trump has endured for years.
There should be no extradition of American citizens when the charges are unclear and political. The US government should either charge them with a crime or protect them from reckless court proceedings in the UK and Romania.
I agree with Mr. L, who pointed out funding something permanently by scrapping a temporary expenditure does not make sense.
On the other hand, I'm dead against the digital ID bullshit so I'm certainly not criticising that being axed.
It’s not funded permanently - it’s very clear that the cut is currently only until April.
Got to say it wouldn’t be my first choice of tax cut - it helps people with EVs who can charge at home far more than anyone else
It’s still the case that electricity consumption as proportion correlates inversely with income - if you don’t drive and live in a small flat that’s what you’re using. And encouraging the transition to EVs is the cherry on top.
If he also abolishes standing charges too then it will be a brilliant start.
BBC: "The UK's new Chancellor John Healey says cutting VAT from domestic electricity bills will be funded from cancelling the Digital ID programme."
So the BBC has swallowed it in full.
BBC Licence Fee Revenue £3.8bn. BBC employs 20,000 people - not a typo, yes TWENTY THOUSAND.
And there's not a single person in the building there who is numerate enough to spot what a child at Primary School should be able to work out in a couple of minutes.
It was reported as being fully funded in the current year. There will, of course, be a budget in the autumn, which will be the new Chancellor's first opportunity to make the books balance.
I’m not sure even that is true. Were they really planning to spend £850m on Digital ID by next March? I doubt it - it hadn’t even started. Had the OBR forecast £850m on Digital ID this year? Sorry but this is completely half baked and is going to make Burnham look very silly when the IFS tells the media it doesn’t stack up.
£850m is a balancing error for the Government.
The point was to kill something off while at the same time providing a cost saving for the tax reduction. Yes it doesn’t add up but
Killing is cards - popular Reduction in electricity bills - popular Figure is small enough no one looking at budgets will care - popular
I’m impressed by the approach it shows that Burnham has far more political nounce than SKS ever had
I agree with Mr. L, who pointed out funding something permanently by scrapping a temporary expenditure does not make sense.
On the other hand, I'm dead against the digital ID bullshit so I'm certainly not criticising that being axed.
It’s not funded permanently - it’s very clear that the cut is currently only until April.
Got to say it wouldn’t be my first choice of tax cut - it helps people with EVs who can charge at home far more than anyone else
However that only partially offsets the tax imposed on them on a per mile basis when it is implemented in around 18 months
The mileage charge was one of the worst policies of the last two years. He should bin that and devolve vehicle taxation to councils - congestion, parking etc etc
I agree with Mr. L, who pointed out funding something permanently by scrapping a temporary expenditure does not make sense.
On the other hand, I'm dead against the digital ID bullshit so I'm certainly not criticising that being axed.
It’s not funded permanently - it’s very clear that the cut is currently only until April.
Got to say it wouldn’t be my first choice of tax cut - it helps people with EVs who can charge at home far more than anyone else
As the BBC also reported, this is about signalling to the markets that there won't be any unfunded give-aways before the Budget - in three or four month's time.
That will be the moment to judge this new administration's fiscal probity (or lack of it). For now, it's just quibbling.
In having Bridget Phillipson swapped out for Lucy Powell Burnham has started by managing something I would have sworn was impossible.
He’s found somebody nastier, smugger and still more incompetent to run the DfE.
Not that it will make much difference given the abysmal quality of the department’s permanent staff, but it’s still remarkable.
When my uncle was a teacher I used to sit and absorb his complaints about whoever the current Secretary of State for Education was. Eventually I asked him if he'd ever had a good opinion of any incumbent during his time teaching and what could a future one do to earn his approval. His answer was no and "They could increase my salary". After that I realised that teachers are the worst people to judge the quality of an SoS of Education.
BBC: "The UK's new Chancellor John Healey says cutting VAT from domestic electricity bills will be funded from cancelling the Digital ID programme."
So the BBC has swallowed it in full.
BBC Licence Fee Revenue £3.8bn. BBC employs 20,000 people - not a typo, yes TWENTY THOUSAND.
And there's not a single person in the building there who is numerate enough to spot what a child at Primary School should be able to work out in a couple of minutes.
It was reported as being fully funded in the current year. There will, of course, be a budget in the autumn, which will be the new Chancellor's first opportunity to make the books balance.
I’m not sure even that is true. Were they really planning to spend £850m on Digital ID by next March? I doubt it - it hadn’t even started. Had the OBR forecast £850m on Digital ID this year? Sorry but this is completely half baked and is going to make Burnham look very silly when the IFS tells the media it doesn’t stack up.
£850m is a balancing error for the Government.
The point was to kill something off while at the same time providing a cost saving for the tax reduction. Yes it doesn’t add up but
Killing is cards - popular Reduction in electricity bills - popular Figure is small enough no one looking at budgets will care - popular
I’m impressed by the approach it shows that Burnham has far more political nounce than SKS ever had
Terminating ID cards and allowing new O&G licences look to be exercises in stripping barnacles off the boat.
The ID card project was stuck in the quicksands. Burnham had the choice of investing significant political and actual capital into the project or let it hang around as a zombie. Instead of which he makes a show of closing it as [non-existent] money savings that he can pass on in the form of lower energy bills.
Granting the new O&G licences shuts down the nonsense about a North Sea bonanza and allows Miatta Fahnbulleh to quietly carry on with Ed Miliband's energy policy and transition.
Burnham is a lot better at retail politics than Starmer I think
In having Bridget Phillipson swapped out for Lucy Powell Burnham has started by managing something I would have sworn was impossible.
He’s found somebody nastier, smugger and still more incompetent to run the DfE.
Not that it will make much difference given the abysmal quality of the department’s permanent staff, but it’s still remarkable.
When my uncle was a teacher I used to sit and absorb his complaints about whoever the current Secretary of State for Education was. Eventually I asked him if he'd ever had a good opinion of any incumbent during his time teaching and what could a future one do to earn his approval. His answer was no and "They could increase my salary". After that I realised that teachers are the worst people to judge the quality of an SoS of Education.
There have been some good ones. McGregor. Morris. Greening.
McGregor and Greening had in common that they knew very little but were willing to listen and learn. Morris of course was an expert.
All of them did however have in common that they were very quickly removed for daring to listen to experts and not their permanent officials.
Chris Bryant is in as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Ed Miliband is in as Foreign Secretary
Ellie Reeves is in as Attorney General
Emma Reynolds is in as Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Emma Reynolds Angela Eagle is in as DEFRA
Hamish Falconer is a minister across both the Cabinet Office and Foreign Office.
Kanishka Narayan will be a minister of state across the Cabinet Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Jonathan Reynolds is in as Business Secretary aka Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
Miatta Fahnbulleh is in as Energy and Net Zero Secretary
Louise Haigh is in as First Secretary of State
Lucy Powell is in as Education Secretary
Stephen Kinnock is in as Secretary of State for Wales
Wes Streeting is in as Defence Secretary
Yvette Cooper is in as Health Secretary
Departed
Bridget Phillipson is out as Education Secretary
Darren Jones is out as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
David Lammy is out as Justice Secretary and Deputy PM
Ed Miliband is out as Energy Secretary
Hilary Benn is out as Northern Ireland Secretary
Jenny Chapman is out as international development minister
Jo Stevens is out as Wales Secretary
Jonathan Reynolds is out as Chief Whip
Liz Kendall is out as Technology Secretary
Miatta Fahnbulleh is out as Housing Minister
Nick Thomas-Symonds is out as paymaster general and Cabinet Office minister
Peter Kyle is out as Business Secretary
Rachel Reeves is out as Chancellor
Richard Hermer is out as Attorney General
Steve Reed is out as Housing Secretary
Yvette Cooper is out as Foreign Secretary
? is out as Health Secretary
? is out as First Secretary Of State
? is out as DSIT (department merged into Business and Trade, which will be renamed as the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
Remains
Bridget Phillipson remains as Minister for Women and Equalities
Douglas Alexander remains as Secretary of State for Scotland
Heidi Alexander remains as Secretary of State for Transport
Lisa Nandy remains as Culture Secretary (department renamed as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Pat McFadden remains as Work and Pensions Secretary
Shabhana Mahmood remains as Home Secretary
Alan Campbell remains as Leader of the House of Commons.
Angela Smith remains as Leader of the House of Lords.
Matthew Pennycook remains as a minister in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
All slots now filled. Go home, folks, go home.
Healy appointment inspired in terms of markets and defence spending Streeting will weed out waste in Defence as he did in NHS Ed Miliband, a Jew whose parents fled fascism who will fight Netanyahu and Zionism globally is inspired.
All positives
Biggest negattive, replacing the excellent Phillipson with Lucy fecking Powell
Throwing Starmer loyalists under the bus is very petty and Johnsonian. The tribal Lucy Powell in Education demonstrates Burnham is not the genius he believes he is.
The political reform elements of Burnham’s agenda will be the most challenging to push forward, given all the vested interests, and I suspect an under appreciated aspect of the new PM’s team selection was picking people who are up for it.
In particular, given the devolution agenda, has he picked MPs with prior local government backgrounds?
Does he care? He's been able to massage his own ego and a that of a few mates. The country has nothing to do with it.
GE soon.
Unduly negative and cynical. And if you think the current lot are bad, do take a good long look at the alternatives.
You could call it that - or a fair assessment of the internal tribalism of Labour. Soundbites and eye catching media stunts don't win elections (see Farage). It's down to how you shape the economy to take the economic winds and storms because the banks will notice.
I agree with Mr. L, who pointed out funding something permanently by scrapping a temporary expenditure does not make sense.
On the other hand, I'm dead against the digital ID bullshit so I'm certainly not criticising that being axed.
It’s not funded permanently - it’s very clear that the cut is currently only until April.
Got to say it wouldn’t be my first choice of tax cut - it helps people with EVs who can charge at home far more than anyone else
I'm interest3d in why the objections to this are so visceral in the UK amongst certain groups (is it a demograhic thing?).
Dogital ID is already a thing across much of Europe and is arriving across the EU aiui, and it's not as if they don't already have all the information.
Update: I'm leaving "Dogotal ID" because that is a better name for Canine ID Chips .
Comments
....for sources of spring water.
Described as Soft Left, so continuity Miliband?
Small steps but something, finally,
As a former prosecutor, I understand the importance of protecting Americans in times of crisis. The US Constitution is the greatest protection in the world for its citizens. The Tate brothers are American citizens and so they deserve full American Constitutional protections - which means innocent until proven guilty. No American court has charged them with a crime despite years of false alarms and innuendos. They’ve been deplatformed, debanked, arrested, and still no convictions - something President Trump has endured for years.
There should be no extradition of American citizens when the charges are unclear and political. The US government should either charge them with a crime or protect them from reckless court proceedings in the UK and Romania.
Political lawfare is dangerous.
The rule of law still matters and it is our responsibility to uphold the integrity of the justice system.
https://x.com/AbrahamHamadeh/status/2079248389850718213
If he also abolishes standing charges too then it will be a brilliant start.
The point was to kill something off while at the same time providing a cost saving for the tax reduction. Yes it doesn’t add up but
Killing is cards - popular
Reduction in electricity bills - popular
Figure is small enough no one looking at budgets will care - popular
I’m impressed by the approach it shows that Burnham has far more political nounce than SKS ever had
NEW THREAD
He’s found somebody nastier, smugger and still more incompetent to run the DfE.
Not that it will make much difference given the abysmal quality of the department’s permanent staff, but it’s still remarkable.
That will be the moment to judge this new administration's fiscal probity (or lack of it). For now, it's just quibbling.
The ID card project was stuck in the quicksands. Burnham had the choice of investing significant political and actual capital into the project or let it hang around as a zombie. Instead of which he makes a show of closing it as [non-existent] money savings that he can pass on in the form of lower energy bills.
Granting the new O&G licences shuts down the nonsense about a North Sea bonanza and allows Miatta Fahnbulleh to quietly carry on with Ed Miliband's energy policy and transition.
Burnham is a lot better at retail politics than Starmer I think
McGregor and Greening had in common that they knew very little but were willing to listen and learn. Morris of course was an expert.
All of them did however have in common that they were very quickly removed for daring to listen to experts and not their permanent officials.
He went to Eton College on a sponsorship, then joined the Labour Party at 18 !
Dogital ID is already a thing across much of Europe and is arriving across the EU aiui, and it's not as if they don't already have all the information.
Update: I'm leaving "Dogotal ID" because that is a better name for Canine ID Chips .