Lock, Stock, and the Bottom of the Barrel

Adherence to the Triple Lock would still leave Britain with a lower pension than any comparable country. By definition, an anomaly cannot happen three times in a row, yet this is the third year running that the highest of the three measures has been declared to have been "an anomaly". Precisely what increase would not be, and why not? Where, exactly, is the line beyond which the figure is "anomalous"? And why, exactly, is that line there, in particular?

Every member of the House of Commons was elected on a commitment to the Triple Lock, since it was in the manifestos of every party that returned anyone in 2019, and since none of them abandoned it until Angela Rayner refused to recommit Labour to it today. If the Government did abrogate it, then that would be because the Opposition had given it permission to do so.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.