I hate to have to tell Keir Starmer this, but a cease and desist letter from a deranged old bat could be the beginning of many, many years. Not that he has only that to worry him. Rumour reaches me from Their Lordship's House of a Labour rebellion against the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the most un-Blairite Government Bill this century, and dutifully being opposed by Neil O'Brien, whose political party would be impossible to guess in a blind test.
To position herself as a potential successor to Starmer, Bridget Phillipson has to dismantle the most abiding domestic political legacy of the Blair Government. The old hands up the corridor, who prided themselves on their bad relations with their party's staffroom base, are spitting tacks. But notice that Wes Streeting does not need to go easy on the NHS privatisation if he wants to be Prime Minister. The Labour Party is not what most people think that it is.
That party is tied with Reform UK for the top of the poll, with each on 25 per cent support. Feed the results into the mincer, and they would produce a hung Parliament with Labour as the largest party, so it is still technically ahead of Reform. But the business with the grooming gangs is cutting through. Phillipson might amend her Bill to provide for an inquiry, thereby defying the Blairite ultras in both Houses to vote against that by voting against it. Andy Burnham is on manoeuvres.
Yet who is a grooming gang, and who is not? Underage groupies have always been integral to rock 'n' roll. We all know what at least used to be endemic at public schools. Popular entertainers were known to sleep with underage girls at the youth conferences of the political parties back in the day. And so on. Reading about the role in grooming gangs of fast food outlets, minicab offices, and other such establishments, I am not alone in asking to be told something that I did not already know from towns and villages that were still overwhelmingly white, and which were literally or practically 100 per cent so in the 1990s, when it was effectively less illegal than underage drinking for men in their twenties, or even older, to have sex with girls of 15, 14, or even younger.
No one was ever more groomed than Shamima Begum, but the main argument against bringing her back is that she herself would no longer have any reason to come, since the side to which Five Eyes intelligence trafficked her from her native London has won, giving her every hope of a good position in the new regime. Syria is a land of opportunity. Not every London Bangladeshi girl can be Sheikh Hasina's niece.
Far from being deranged, Truss has been proved right. Government borrowing costs have just soared to a 16 year high-far higher than under her-during the reign of a Chancellor who has just done the opposite of Truss’s proposals and hiked taxes on everyone from farmers and private school parents to employers to pay for fat public sector pay rises.
ReplyDeleteProving definitively that rising borrowing costs had nothing to do with Truss’s tax cuts or this government’s tax rises-in both cases it’s a response to the government choosing to fund its commitments (tax cuts or public sector pay deals) with more borrowing.
Good luck with the Betty Gusset Appreciation Society. Very good luck, indeed. Are you going to wear lettuce? If so, then how, exactly?
DeleteIf only there had been signs that Liz Truss was shouty crackers.
ReplyDeleteOn becoming Prime Minister, she was the longest-serving member of the Cabinet. David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson had all promoted her.
DeleteWe have far higher government borrowing costs now under Reeves high-tax regime than we ever did before Truss’s proposed tax cuts, so she never “crashed the economy” as Starmer says. In both cases, the bond markets were reacting to governments funding commitments with more borrowing (to pay for public sector pay rises in this case and tax cuts in Truss’s).
ReplyDeleteEvery economically literate commentator knew that at the time, only the thick swallowed Starmer’s “Truss’s tax cuts crashed the economy” line.
Again I say, good luck with that.
Delete“The yield on a 10-year bond has surged to its highest level since 2008, while the yield on a 30-year bond is at its highest since 1998, meaning it costs the government more to borrow over the long term.”
ReplyDeleteFar higher than when Truss supposedly “crashed the economy”-and under a high-tax leftwing government. Truss must be laughing.
Everyone is laughing. At Truss.
DeleteThe funny thing is that had Boris stood in Uxbridge and Theresa May stayed in Maidenhead, the Tories would have most likely held those seats. But had Liz Truss resigned as an MP, the Tories would’ve held her old seat. And yet she’s still opening her mouth.
ReplyDeleteSadly, it appears to have no close button.
DeleteI wonder if Liz Truss has thought of taking legal action against Liz Truss for the serious damage she has done to her reputation?
ReplyDeleteIf you suggested that to her, then she would probably think that it was a splendid idea. Then again, would she understand it?
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