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Governments are always short of something. Money, parliamentary time, civil servants, public patience and, occasionally, ideas. This week Andy Burnham appeared to be particularly interested in acquiring another scarce commodity: time. In the traditional pre-conference Sunday morning interview (with Laura Kuenssberg) the PM announced the most ambitious domestic policy of his new premiership: a National…
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Surprising toxicity, stunted ambitions Four days of earnest, well-meaning discussion, sadly trending towards catatonia (not the band.) If you want to know what the climate implications of angora rabbit farming could be, the LibDem conference is where you want to be. The LibDems have a LOT of policy – and almost the full range of…
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Much activity, little consequence. A lot appears to have been happening in Westminster since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister. The new leader arrived promising a different sort of government. Policies have been abandoned, spending priorities questioned and relations with Europe cautiously rearranged. A steady trickle of announcements designed to make people feel a little bit…
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RECESS AGAIN This 4-week conference recess seems creakily antique. Has no-one ever thought of having all the party conferences in the same week? There can be very few people other than journalists who want to attend more than one (and journalists have colleagues…) Tuesday 15th September On the last day of term, Yvette Cooper (Pontefract, Castleford &…
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Welfare Reform Proposals. Kemi Badenoch delivered a fairly surgical question at PMQs on Wednesday, questioning the new Chancellor’s own declared reasons for resigning as Defence Secretary just 13 weeks ago: “Is the Prime Minister unable, or is he just unwilling,to get that money by 2030?” The PM offered the classic deflective response, revealing far more…
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PMQs was not a close contest this week – but a serious defeat for the PM. Although LotO began predictably enough on defence spending, the PM was unexpectedly knocked out on Question 2 and remained down and out. Mrs Badenoch’s second question on defence spending had the PM on the run: LotO: “The Chancellor used…
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Welcome to Governmenting. Parliament returned this week, which was inconvenient for almost everybody. For Andy Burnham, it meant the end of the forgiving period in which a new Prime Minister can talk principally about what his government intends to become (for the length of which he has surely earned some sort of UK and All-comers…
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Nigel Farage’s much delayed conference speech was polished, combative and politically effective. It also exposed Reform’s central problem: the leader increasingly looks ready for an election, while the circle around him still does not look even close to being ready for government. Farage warned his supporters that he expects an election next year. That remains…
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981,000 16–24-year-olds were not in education, employment or training (“NEET”) in the UK in the three months from April to June this year according to the latest ONS figures released on 27th August, That is ONE IN EIGHT young people – nearly 1million beginning adult life without employment, education or training. This is not a new problem. Governments have worried…
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Burnham goes off the boil After a month of frenetic activity, this was the week when Andy Burnham’s new government began to encounter something rather less exciting than political momentum: governing. Reform UK returned to the polling lead with the YouGov voting intention poll based on 16th-17th August data, which placed Reform UK on 24%,…
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In Office, but is Anyone in Power? Andy Burnham has been Prime Minister for four weeks. He is already discovering the difference between authority and control. “Governing” ate the Listening Tour? Four weeks ago, Andy Burnham arrived at No 10 promising energy, visibility and reconnection. Two weeks of announcements followed. Some of them involved pork…
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The Politics of the Quick Fix. After two weeks of frantic Prime Ministering the Announcement Machine finally fell silent as Andy Burnham went on holiday. Thankfully this also put a temporary stop to the pubs-and-footie tik-toks. So there’s that. (Kate Devlin & Millie Cooke, The Independent, 7th August 2026 “Minister forced to deny Andy Burnham…