[The Weeping Angel]

Most of the responses are claiming they're doing it because of the threat of Zack Polanski.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, old Zack, doing the hard yards on tax and spend.

What happened to "Dodgy Reeves trying to weasel her way out of removing the two child cap in full"?

Which we might of course still get. But perhaps we'd be better if everyone waited. I can't remember budgets in the old days being like this.

[davidjay]

Yeah, old Zack, doing the hard yards on tax and spend.

What happened to "Dodgy Reeves trying to weasel her way out of removing the two child cap in full"?

Which we might of course still get. But perhaps we'd be better if everyone waited. I can't remember budgets in the old days being like this.

Chancellors used to resign if so much as a sniff of a rumour got out.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Speaker tells the Government off for that every year, but there's nothing he can do about it. The Government gets it in the neck on everything and understandably wants to get its message out.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Some bad employment figures. Hopefully his will work itself out but the Government have made big changes. Martin Wolf wrote a column this week suggesting that Labour had chucked out some of the New Labour stuff that worked eg on the labour market. (As an aside, he fell for all the Gove education stuff, which I suppose isn't surprising seeing his daughter was so involved in it, but a bit depressing all the same).

I guess we'll see.

[The Weeping Angel]

Some bad employment figures. Hopefully his will work itself out but the Government have made big changes. Martin Wolf wrote a column this week suggesting that Labour had chucked out some of the New Labour stuff that worked eg on the labour market. (As an aside, he fell for all the Gove education stuff, which I suppose isn't surprising seeing his daughter was so involved in it, but a bit depressing all the same).

I guess we'll see.

I saw Stephen Bush bigging that up on Bluesky.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Martin Wolf column? I see that Wolf thinks there should have been much more social house building, which makes sense as an anti-poverty measure instead and I expect he strongly supports tax credits, alongside his Brown-Sunak labour market.

Virtually nobody sticks up for this system, because it seems to go against "common sense". Why not raise the minimum wage a lot, so less tax credits, and you're not subsidizing terrible employers paying poverty wages? The trouble with seeing it wages in terms of good and bad employers is that wages depend a lot on how much money is in the local economy. Same problem as seeing rents in terms of predatory and non-predatory landlords. It's surely implausible that London has the best employers and the worst landlords, and eg Neath has the worst employers and the best landlords, seeing that we'll be talking about some of the same people in each place.

I think it's good that the limits of the Brown-Sunak labour market are being acknowledged by the government, because they were shit for lots of people at the sharp end. But it is possible that New Labour's approach was based on what they thought worked best for employment and wages together, rather than just being a moral failure. I hope the employment figures improve.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Spot the outright lie here. Plus the very questionable assertion that someone thought "hey, let's put this Enoch Powell echo in, that'll work".

The idea that racists require permission from the government is obvious bollocks too. Does he think it would all go away if the government did exactly what he wants?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Spot the outright lie here. Plus the very questionable assertion that someone thought "hey, let's put this Enoch Powell echo in, that'll work".

The idea that racists require permission from the government is obvious bollocks too. Does he think it would all go away if the government did exactly what he wants?

[mattomac]

The Martin Wolf column? I see that Wolf thinks there should have been much more social house building, which makes sense as an anti-poverty measure instead and I expect he strongly supports tax credits, alongside his Brown-Sunak labour market.

Virtually nobody sticks up for this system, because it seems to go against "common sense". Why not raise the minimum wage a lot, so less tax credits, and you're not subsidizing terrible employers paying poverty wages? The trouble with seeing it wages in terms of good and bad employers is that wages depend a lot on how much money is in the local economy. Same problem as seeing rents in terms of predatory and non-predatory landlords. It's surely implausible that London has the best employers and the worst landlords, and eg Neath has the worst employers and the best landlords, seeing that we'll be talking about some of the same people in each place.

I think it's good that the limits of the Brown-Sunak labour market are being acknowledged by the government, because they were shit for lots of people at the sharp end. But it is possible that New Labour's approach was based on what they thought worked best for employment and wages together, rather than just being a moral failure. I hope the employment figures improve.

They've spent the past year moaning about the last modest rise in the Minimum wage.

[Tubby Isaacs]

If it's not that, they're moaning about the cost of tax credits to top up these lower wages. See also "we need infrastructure but don't put up our taxes".

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out though. Maybe the employers' NI rise (which again has a "common sense' justification, especially at low wage levels) was too much.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh god. Please no.

McFadden says decision not to pay compensation of up to £10.5bn to Waspi women being reconsidered

This figure is bullshit, cooked up by an obscure functionary.

[The Weeping Angel]

Spot the outright lie here. Plus the very questionable assertion that someone thought "hey, let's put this Enoch Powell echo in, that'll work".

The idea that racists require permission from the government is obvious bollocks too. Does he think it would all go away if the government did exactly what he wants?

https://bsky.app/profile/paulbernal.bsk ... eb7dymtc2w

I find it odd, people on Bluesky complain that Starmer won't call out racism and when he does, they slam him for being a racist.

[mattomac]

Oh god. Please no.

McFadden says decision not to pay compensation of up to £10.5bn to Waspi women being reconsidered

This figure is bullshit, cooked up by an obscure functionary.

Imagine raising taxes to pay for that?

[The Weeping Angel]

Kowtowing to Trump latest.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/11/poli ... sharing-us

The United Kingdom is no longer sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in US military strikes and believes the attacks are illegal, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The UK’s decision marks a significant break from its closest ally and intelligence sharing partner and underscores the growing skepticism over the legality of the US military’s campaign around Latin America.

For years, the UK, which controls a number of territories in the Caribbean where it bases intelligence assets, has helped the US locate vessels suspected of carrying drugs so that the US Coast Guard could interdict them, the sources said. That meant the ships would be stopped, boarded, its crew detained, and drugs seized.

The intelligence was typically sent to Joint Interagency Task Force South, a task force stationed in Florida that includes representatives from a number of partner nations and works to reduce the illicit drug trade.

[Oboogie]

That's because Starmer hates borders and doesn't think the US should defend theirs either!

(I think that was Robert Jenrick's comment, but it could have been Farage or Robinson).

[The Weeping Angel]

The Martin Wolf column? I see that Wolf thinks there should have been much more social house building, which makes sense as an anti-poverty measure instead and I expect he strongly supports tax credits, alongside his Brown-Sunak labour market.

Virtually nobody sticks up for this system, because it seems to go against "common sense". Why not raise the minimum wage a lot, so less tax credits, and you're not subsidizing terrible employers paying poverty wages? The trouble with seeing it wages in terms of good and bad employers is that wages depend a lot on how much money is in the local economy. Same problem as seeing rents in terms of predatory and non-predatory landlords. It's surely implausible that London has the best employers and the worst landlords, and eg Neath has the worst employers and the best landlords, seeing that we'll be talking about some of the same people in each place.

I think it's good that the limits of the Brown-Sunak labour market are being acknowledged by the government, because they were shit for lots of people at the sharp end. But it is possible that New Labour's approach was based on what they thought worked best for employment and wages together, rather than just being a moral failure. I hope the employment figures improve.

Yep. Bush complains about the government imposing social costs onto business.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He might have a point about that. See if the budget can shift that to income tax.

There's a spat with the EU. David Henig and Steve Peers both think the EU is out of order- ie the Commission made a deal, and some member states (particularly France) are trying to go back on it for internal political reasons. But there's inevitably a lot of stuff about like this Niall chap, who of course isn't falling for any "tropes" about Britain here. This stuff is stupid because there's a difference of opinion on the EU side. Germany and the Netherlands and doubtless others agree with the UK. Are the Dutch and Germans a bunch of Brexit red line headbangers too?

Henig thinks there'll be a fudge- ie the UK doesn't pay into the Single Market for this (aside from some specific costs for these agreed programmes, which the UK doesn't have a problem with) but may have to pay in more for other things. This will make the politics of reengagement a lot harder.

Some "Remainers" have become a massive problem for anyone who seriously wants to rebuild the relationship. Starmer's "Red Wall" political strategy hasn't worked- see the polls- but there would also be a problem with counting on support from these people too.

https://bsky.app/profile/nialloconghail ... gcglqoxw2r

[Tubby Isaacs]

He might have a point about that. See if the budget can shift that to income tax.

There's a spat with the EU. David Henig and Steve Peers both think the EU is out of order- ie the Commission made a deal, and some member states (particularly France) are trying to go back on it for internal political reasons. But there's inevitably a lot of stuff about like this Niall chap, who of course isn't falling for any "tropes" about Britain here. This stuff is stupid because there's a difference of opinion on the EU side. Germany and the Netherlands and doubtless others agree with the UK. Are the Dutch and Germans a bunch of Brexit red line headbangers too?

Henig thinks there'll be a fudge- ie the UK doesn't pay into the Single Market for this (aside from some specific costs for these agreed programmes, which the UK doesn't have a problem with) but may have to pay in more for other things. This will make the politics of reengagement a lot harder.

Some "Remainers" have become a massive problem for anyone who seriously wants to rebuild the relationship. Starmer's "Red Wall" political strategy hasn't worked- see the polls- but there would also be a problem with counting on support from these people too.

https://bsky.app/profile/nialloconghail ... gcglqoxw2r

[Tubby Isaacs]

Imagine raising taxes to pay for that?

I suppose there might be a smaller amount to compensate for when Osborne brought the changes forward, which was unfair. But there are better things to spend it on than this.