REEVES CLINGS ON SHAKILY, Lammy shatters ancient constitutional protections casually, Badenoch shows signs of life superficially – the political climate feels very fragile. Rachel Reeves remains in post, although with less authority than Downing Street would like to project. The aftershocks from the Office for Budget Responsibility leak continue, alongside accusations that she oversold the…
BUDGET PANTOMIME: “SHE’S BENEATH YOU!” TWOP put together a quick take on the totally useless Budget on Wednesday evening. Although it was TWOP’s first Budget, the measures announced were so anti-climactic that it seemed hard to justify giving the announcement much notice, but the spectacular subsequent political fall-out is a gift that just keeps giving…
TWOP’S FIRST BUDGET. An awful lot of commentary and very little substance. Rache decided to raise taxes on working families to pay for increases in welfare while hoping future growth can reduce the sting in the future tax tail. [NB: the “hope for growth” has not borne fruit for the last 30 years, why it…
THE POLITICAL KNIVES ARE BEING SHARPENED OFFSTAGE. There are significant leaderrship jitters on both sides of the aisle and although action is not widely expected until after the local elections in May, clever conspiracists strike before their intentions become clear. Labour’s polling trajectory continues downward: YouGov now places Labour as low as 17% in its…
SHRINKING SPACE FOR DIALOGUE, REDUCING PERSONAL LIBERTIES, NO MONEY ANYWHERE. “Repeat protest” curbs really do start to threaten freedom of expression Newish Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood extemporised new plans to curb “repeat protests” after nearly 500 arrests at more pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The idea: if you protest too often, the Home Office can decide you are…
BADENOCH.Neverwhere by (Neil Gaiman) Kemi Badenoch, dreaming of a land where anyone might care what the Conservatives might come up with anytime soon. Even as an enthusiastic A-level History student I found Kemi kicking off with 1780s Manchester a little bit too historical. Badenoch managed to tie this back, in the context of Thursday’s murderous…