Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Yeah, if he goes ahead and gets that done, I will give him lots of credit. Unfortunately, I expect Kemi and Farage to counter very effectively with "they're not paying for care with it, they're paying for immigrants". Ed Davey will come up with a more socially acceptable way of putting it, but will oppose it too.

People who laud the brilliant progressive achievement of Corbyn's 2017 manifesto don't tend to mention that two of its biggest campaigning points were more cops and we won't take granny's house. Which I suppose is what made it a good campaign, but lets not kid ourselves he was going round the country telling everyone how many more asylum seekers we would be taking.

Andy's handing out free money again. This doesn't sound like someone who's particularly "wary".

Andy Burnham has proposed a 20% cut to business rates for pubs with many smaller, family-run enterprises taken out of paying the levy altogether, in his first major policy initiative during the Makerfield byelection.

Burnham’s plans amount to a notable criticism of Keir Starmer’s policy in the area. The Greater Manchester mayor said: “Labour have got it wrong on small businesses.”

He has been wary of discussing concrete policy decisions, in part because of a desire to focus on the current contest, but also because he has said he would not want to go beyond what Labour promised in its election manifesto.

Thanks, Andy. Isn't this called "bowing to lobbyists" when Reeves or Starmer does it?

Is straight talking Andy going to put income tax up? Or is this paid for by facing down bond markets?

Landowners paying IHT is worrying this arch critic of Thatcherite neoliberalism.

Nicely aligning with Farage there. Surely the King In The North isn't a populist?

In fairness to him, he could probably design farmer inheritance tax better. Lift the threshold but increase the rate. I have very little confidence that he does intend that.

Andy’s handing out VAT cuts today (to hospitality). This is going to be the first by-election to crash the pound.

Here he goes again. Let's fill up buses with people at peak time with people who don't need to be on them. (Pensioners, not disabled people, I mean).

Burnham said he would like to remove the restriction that stopped older and disabled people using bus passes before 09:30 GMT, and that he would like to see more "essential services" brought under "stronger public control".

This was not remotely controversial in my hometown when I was a kid, though I think it was 9, not 9.30 that was the cut off.

The 9.30 rule does seem a bit dated. If people are going to work on a train they are likely to be getting to their destination station between 7.30 or 8.30 if they are starting work at 8 or 9. Last year my wife was doing an audit at a factory just outside York so I tagged a long so I could go and mooch around York for the day. I was at a train station that was about 2 minutes from the city centre. The train that left at 9.20 was nearly empty but the train at 9.40 was rammed.

I used to get the train and arrive about 9.20 at my station, for a 10 minute walk to work. I was among the latest starters at my office, and a relatively late finisher, but the trains were still busy. This was many years ago. Do people work earlier now?

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2026 11:18 pm I used to get the train and arrive about 9.20 at my station, for a 10 minute walk to work. I was among the latest starters at my office, and a relatively late finisher, but the trains were still busy. This was many years ago. Do people work earlier now?

They seem to. Most people at my office start between 8.30 and nine but there are definitely more who are there at eight than arrive shortly before ten.

Andy Burnham's been fairly conservative on immigration and asylum in this campaign. Aside from The Greens, I think that's going to be the case with everybody, and most parties in Europe too. We'll see whether any Green councils step up with hosting more asylum seekers. Of course, they could make the argument that it's for the whole country to step up, not just them, but there might be some awkward politics for them if at least Hackney and Lewisham don't.

I start at 10am.

It is a bus pass given to them free which they can use all day.

Everything I’ve read so far wants me to vote against him.

I've never understood the attraction of starting and finishing early for people who don't have to. For single people, what's so great about being home at 5 instead of 6.30? Getting up at 8.30 or even 9, compared with 7 or 7.30, I get that.

I've done some work with disabled charities in Gloucestershire. Social isolation is a real problem for people with accessibility challenges in rural communities. The buses are more frequent during the school runs but, if you are lucky, there will be a rural service every two hours outside of that.

We found it was impossible for some people to get to Gloucester before midday using their travel passes.

Of course that doesn't justify a universal bung to every pensioner with a metro service on their doorstep.

Yeah, I wonder if (you know) local politicians making local decisions could be the order of the day. Mr Get-Westminster-Out-Of-The-Way could maybe run with that position?

Or perhaps disabled passes could work earlier than pensioners?

Government has already announced new measures.

There's no magic here. They're either dodgy vape shops or they're empty. There are not thousands of small retail businesses queuing up to take over empty Kurdish barber shops.

It's an anti-money laundering policy rather than a regeneration policy.

soulboy wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2026 12:36 pm I've done some work with disabled charities in Gloucestershire. Social isolation is a real problem for people with accessibility challenges in rural communities. The buses are more frequent during the school runs but, if you are lucky, there will be a rural service every two hours outside of that.

We found it was impossible for some people to get to Gloucester before midday using their travel passes.

Of course that doesn't justify a universal bung to every pensioner with a metro service on their doorstep.

Of course this can be done area to area.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2026 2:22 pm It's an anti-money laundering policy rather than a regeneration policy.

Yes, I'm aware of that. But even if successful, it's not going to 'fix' the high streets.