[Boiler]

What the fuck...?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Means nothing. He'll know stuff about what happened when he was there. Would be odd if they didn't consult him. The Independent is a shitty clickbait outfit.

In other news.

Ministers are considering handing over billions of pounds raised by business rates to regional mayors as part of one of the biggest shake-ups of the English tax system in recent years.

Steve Reed, the local government secretary, said the government was working on plans to devolve the tax, which has been the subject of recent protests by pubs and other hospitality businesses.

We keep hearing that "the Treasury" doesn't allow this sort of thing. I'm never convinced that "The Treasury" means anything much beyond "the Chancellor of the Exchequer", but I guess we'll see. Rachel Reeves seemed to change the fiscal rules without too much of a backlash.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

The word 'advising' is doing a lot of heavy lifting...

[Tubby Isaacs]

More heavy lifting than Geoff Capes.

This is good news, though strictly speaking it's a Private Members Bill, it's something that the Government pledged to make space for.

The assisted dying bill is set to return to the Commons after the Labour MP Lauren Edwards agreed to use her private member’s bill to put the issue before MPs again.

Edwards said she wanted to give the legislation another chance because it had been blocked by the House of Lords after being passed by MPs. The return of the bill would give supporters a chance to use the Parliament Act to potentially bypass the Lords if it was blocked for a second time.

It was filibustered by a small group of peers last time. Surely they can't do that again. The Lords is a revising and delaying chamber. One year's delay is surely quite enough.

[Crabcakes]

Predictably, this has sent Bluesky into meltdown.

Well, good - he was a terrible advisor, and this is a terrible decision.

[Tubby Isaacs]

What decision has actually been made? He’s not formally employed. There are two people doing his old job on an acting basis. What does it mean to say he’s advising?