It was trailed and trumpeted. It was well delivered in the heroic barnstorming style. He likened himself to FDR and his 1930s New Deal. Sadly Boris did not impress many, if any. There was grand rhetoric but next to no money. £5 billion for repairs and stuff and a lot of talk about building. But […]
He has to deliver. Next Tuesday he is booked to make a widely trailed speech themed that, post lockdown, there will be no return to austerity. Instead the government will pour huge sums into infrastructure projects, in the hope that it can invest its way out of the unfolding economic crisis. There will be no […]
A new Report sets out out in pretty forensic detail the many reasons why Labour lost in the general Election of 2019. A central theme is that, starting from the early Blair Government years, the bedrock working class base in the crumbling former industrial heartlands, was drifting away, often towards a sullen refusal to come […]
Following through on the vexed education issue, including a briefing from a front line teacher, it is clear to me that the present directives from the government are unrealistic except in the very short term. At the beginning of the pandemic the government was cavalier in its attitude to the risks and over confident in […]
Sir Keir Starmer is wrong not to come out firmly with a statement encouraging parents who can, to get their children back to school. Widespread anxiety among parents, made worse by the posturing of the teaching unions, which the Labour leadership is doing far too little to dispel, is handing useful political capital and scoring […]
One metre is essential and soon. We are losing sight of what we are trying to do. We cannot give absolute priority to saving life until we have the power to do so. It is right to lock everybody up and shut everything down for a short period when, in an unforeseen emergency, that gives […]
It is now clear that this government is a disappointment even to its enthusiastic supporters. It is not an ideology issue, nor even one of party. It is not actually about politics. It is about competence. At the centre is the pandemic with it horrific death toll of over 50,000 if you include all deaths […]