The Government – hoping to change the subject from scheduled fuel duty rises – accused fuel retailers of “price gouging” or“profiteering” despite no evidence to support that. Tory opposition is smart but short term. None of it addresses the realities of the public finances.
Despite the chaos engulfing the Starmer regime, Labour insists that it is we, the people, who are getting everything upside-down, back to front and inside-out. Dumping an abusive relationship is apparently the best protection from being gaslit.
If the Corporation cannot persuade even half the public it offers a well informed and unbiased public service, it will need to change.
The BBC needs to ask more questions of itself to understand the haemorrhage of viewers and the rising number of its critics. If we are to continue with a “national broadcaster” having access to funds from a media tax we must insist on impartiality.
Thanks to Trump, they are trying to fight the election they would like to have – and the one they thought they were having as recently as January – versus the one they actually face.
Our deputy editor joins the New Statesman’s Rachel Cunliffe on Sky News’ press preview to discuss the torrid economic news.
The Deputy Prime Minister sounded happy, and seemed quite unaware how people might feel outside the palace gates.
The Bank needs to cast its net wider and ensure that the thoughts of a wider group of people reach the Monetary Policy Committee members and are factored into their decision-making.
The British political experience since the exit from the Gold Standard has been that major turning points in the fortunes of parties are marked by crises that sees interest rates rise rapidly.
Hoping a later election would have changed the result is pointless. Sunak would not have changed, the strategy would not have changed, and voters would not have hated us any less.
The Rooker-Wise Amendment, thanks to the canny support of Nigel Lawson, was “perhaps the most important principle informing our tax system” for over 40 years. Sunak scrapped it, and has now revived it solely for Britain’s wealthiest age cohort.
The choice people face is to stick with us on a clear plan to prosperity, or risk all of the progress we have made with a vote for a Labour Party who have so few plans that they all fit on a credit card-sized leaflet.
While low inflation may be the objective of policy, merely setting a target for it begs the question of how it will be achieved.
He does not just say what people want him to say, regardless of whether he can achieve it.
Realism requires backbone. This government has none. Winter fuel payments: U-turn. Welfare reform: U-turn. The two-child benefit cap: U-turn. Farm taxes, family business taxes, pubs – all U-turns. Whenever pressure mounts, this government folds.