Good and, all things considered, fairly upbeat chat

What passed for a defence “debate” on the lunchtime news was, yet again, an interview with the “defence sector” explaining why the growing Government cheques must grow even faster www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

Boom-time for anyone who owns the 10th property along on this Mancunian street!

'2 things have become too expensive: satisfying the needs of the population & the satisfying the govt’s creditors If Burnhamism can’t escape these binds, the case for Burnham getting his hands dirty doing progressive politics – including confronting vested interests – becomes all the greater'

A top job at a top think tank And at a moment where there is suddenly a whole lot of policy thinking to be done! Come & help @ruthcurtice.bsky.social lead @resolutionfoundation.org www.resolutionfoundation.org/about-us/opp...

Pre-PM Burnham can’t yet be compared with a serving PM Can leave stage before anyone has had the chance to ask ‘But how?’ If pre-PM Starmer had spoken like that in 2024, however, it seems fair to guess he’d have ended up with more than 34% of the vote

“To have lived in the age of…”

Beyond silly, but not unprecedented

“I think, whereof I am clueless” A revelatory & totally different Friday read, c/o @pghoskin.bsky.social With a few random snapshots from within his own mind, he shows the rest of us that we don’t think like we think we do www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/73781/...

Gotta hand it to @tommctague.bsky.social for this doubly timely cover

It’s an odd thing when politicians recycle lines that didn’t work well for those who said them the first time around Peter Mandelson’s fiery insistence in 2001 that “I’m a fighter & not a quitter” was a (presumably subconscious) quotation of Richard Nixon, speaking some time before he quit

What was Keir Starmer’s fundamental problem as PM? Tom Clark argues that it was his inability to govern as himself Next we need a leader who is sure enough of who they are, and of what they believe, to put themselves into the job, Tom writes

Jonathan Haskel - new OBR chair!

Another way to put this Lots of chat about what Andy Burnham's equivalent to Gordon Brown's 'BoE independence moment' could be Here's one easy-to-imagine answer

1. Thought -- if Burnham doesn't want to chose between Chancellor Streeting & Chancellor Miliband might he split the job? Eye-catching break with orthodoxy, & possibly sidesteps some sharper dilemmas while the new power balance settles

If Burnham were to produce 324 nominations (ie >80% MPs) by July 9th do we think NEC would not bother with the slated nominations week? (as would then be mathematically impossible for anyone else to make 81) Is so could he be called to palace July 9?

10 years ago, almost to the minute (how often can you say that?!) I tweeted this from Hackney & suggested turnout in Remainia was holding up well But didn’t assume was in the bag. Recall me & @jamesrball.com discussing how Leave had opposite age gradient to Scotland’s Yes—& that could spell trouble

The problem, these last 2 years, hasn’t merely been the lack of a silver tongue or a poetic touch As human beings, long before we engage with what a leader says, we judge if they speak freely from the heart Or instead with suspicious calculation www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/739...

Does mooted Al Carns/Darren Jones run aim to check a drift to the ‘soggy soft left’? If so, could self-defeat In unlike event either mustered 81 MPs they’d have to compete with Burnham for affections of mass membership Which, as with Starmer’s 2020 pledges, would involve all sides pitching left

The Keir Starmer tragedy: my take “A social democrat who landed on a reading of public opinion as so irredeemably reactionary that he doubted decent social policy could ever be squared with democratic success” www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/739...

Behind the frenzy — the roots & the consequences of 7 PMs in 10 years www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

If Starmer hadn’t blocked Burnham in Gorton & Denton… Burnham could have prevailed against a less-energised Green campaign Starmer could immediately have offered him a Govt job Burnham could have accepted & become another insider just before the locals OR rejected it & looked like a schemer

Not saying there’s no room for manoeuvre at all, mind - just that if you want to make space to borrow for long-term investment, it’s a good idea to be really clear you won’t promise stuff you can’t pay for.

Andy Burnham’s win was stunning But on the same morning we learnt the Govt had borrowed £23bn in May And many of the ideas floated in the winning campaign would only push that up www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/738...

📚 Kathryn Schoon on Hettie O’Brien’s THE ASSET CLASS 📚 Tom Clark on Liaquat Ahamed’s 1873 📚 Sophie Farmer on Sophia Smith-Galer’s HOW TO KILL A LANGUAGE This month’s Books in Brief:

A non-rebel in rebellion

The newly crowned MP for Makerfield’s winning personality and easy political style could soon be in Number 10. At which point, fiscal realities will hit very hard, writes Tom Clark

Andy Burnham has proved stunningly good at winning friends His next, and far tougher test, will be to survive making some enemies www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/738...

Wonder what drama that isn’t “psycho” would look like Maybe a bit like experience that isn’t “lived”

Lot going on, but this one also worth clocking — on a 2024 baseline actually a bigger shift. Reveals amazing capacity for an anti-SNP tactical vote. Labour vote-share down by nearly four-fifths

All the remarkable stats from Makerfield, plus a reminder that one of them was somewhat more remarkable at Torrington in 1958 A brilliant & characteristic summary of the story painted in numbers from @peterkellner.bsky.social kellnerp.substack.com/p/four-take-...

For what it's worth (which from my PoV is really not all that much) polling day has seen the bookies' odds on a Burnham victory tighten from very likely to overwhelmingly likely ... with 20 minutes of voting left, some firms offering just £1 reward for £18 staked

What a time to be disinvesting in impartial & informative journalism Especially radio journalism which, in the scheme of things, is cheap

The Cold War was carefully calibrated to avoid directly fighting the Soviets because of nuclear fears There is nothing like the same wariness now—even though Putin has the same apocalyptic weaponry www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

A dismal Brexit decade (although intriguingly, when the data is cut this way, with Germany looking even worse)

From Wetherspoons on the moon to squirrel race wars, the online Right has taken a decidedly whacky turn @benjamin-clark.bsky.social guides you through a bizarre virtual landscape, & its potentially serious off-line consequences www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/con...

Yes, we need a “defence debate” Sadly, we’re not getting one www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

"Welfare up, defence down"? Well, no, actually... despite a misleading chart from BBC's so-called "verify" There's been little trend in either non-pensioner benefits or defence since the mid-90s Chapter & verse c/o @ruthcurtice.bsky.social resolutionfoundation.substack.com/p/defence-ve...

RIP Roy Hattersley. A pragmatic style of politics in unswerving service of radical, egalitarian ends. A rare blend then, which would be rarer still today. www.thenewworld.co.uk/matt-kelly-r...

I get Andy Burham’s Triple Lock line, given manifesto I don’t get floating pensioner tax cuts After flirting with WASPI compensation & reversing the Nat Ins rise, he’s now flirting with diluting the govt’s other big direct tax rise The mood music will need to change VERY fast after Thursday

In Norway, 🇳🇴 only 7 petrol & 29 hybrids were sold this January Bet nobody there regrets having made the transition early, now that it’s done Certain inevitability about the land of HS2 experiencing a scrappier journey

A one-minute read on why falling prices are even worse than inflation www.linkedin.com/pulse/1873-a...

I was sat right next to the Guardian letters desk, when they took a call from David Hockney asking if “picture letters” could be considered & whether sending them in by Fax would work. They found a way, and if you click you’ll see he got the standard “D Hockney, Bridlington” sign off

What a loss! And, for such a committed smoker, what an innings

Put this together with ‘sympathy’ for reversing the big Nat Insurance rise & it begins to look almost as unrealistic as a preparation for government as Starmer’s notorious 2024 tax pledges www.ft.com/content/1021...

The distant days when FALLING prices were the problem www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

The Common Travel Area with Ireland dates back to the 1920s It survived despite decades of murderous ‘troubles’ Now one isolated if ghastly incident, and screaming political calls to rip it up

Burnham is all about heart In today's cover essay, @raviguru.bsky.social asks what sort of agenda he might land at if in office he's led by his head

Don't miss our free event ‘Englishness, Britishness, and the Populist Challenge’ at the Orwell Festival on 17/6/26. Featuring Rosie Campbell, Pippa Catterall, John Denham, Tom McTague, and Ros Wynne-Jones. Have you got your ticket yet?