Friday, July 31, 2026
Is this progress on social care or a false dawn?
The new Labour prime minister held a summit in Downing Street on Wednesday with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey to begin the process of thrashing out a way to deliver social care before it collapses the NHS.
As John Crace writes in the Guardian, this issue is personal for Burnham, as it is for Davey and for a lot of us too. Crace says that at last we have a prime minister who is emotionally intelligent, who understands the country and can connect with it, and who is prepared to expend political capital to get the things done that other politicians were too weak to go near:
This was Andy Burnham’s first big set piece since taking office. And he went straight for social care. An issue that previous governments over the past 30 years have done their utmost to avoid. A royal commission, 22 reviews and absolutely nothing has changed. Too difficult, too many hard choices. Far simpler to keep on with a system that’s failing. Let the next government deal with it. They can take the hits. Just concentrate on trying to win the next election.
“This is personal to me,” said Andy, as he addressed a small audience of care workers and the media at Jewish Care in north London. Personal because his father has dementia and needs daily care.
It’s personal for a lot of us. It’s personal for me. My mother had Alzheimer’s and needed to be in a care home for seven years before she died last year. My sisters and I had to sell her home to pay for the care she got. We didn’t resent it. It was just what needed to happen and the care she got from a mostly overseas staff was superb. We couldn’t have asked for more. But my mother would have been bitterly upset had she been aware of what we had done. Before she got dementia she had always been so proud she would be able to leave her house to us children. It was to have been her last gift to us.
But there is a reason why social care has proven to be so difficult to fix. As Crace points out no one wants to pay for social care until the point when you find you have no choice. And that applies to the country as a whole when it comes to raising the money to pay for what needs to be done.
Already, Reform UK are trying to reawaken the outcry against a so-called 'death tax' even though there are no actual proposals on the table as yet. And there will be hard choices if we are to fix this problem.
I am confident that solutions can be found, they need to be if we are to support our aging population and take pressure off the NHS. The question is whether those solutions can survive a cross-party approach, or will one or another break off from the consensus in favour of making political capital on the price we will have to pay to get it right?
It is at that point that the real test of Burnham's resolve comes into play, and whether he has the support to take the issue to a conclusion in the face of damaging headlines from the right wing press and poorer opinion poll ratings.
The prime minister has raised expectations, he now needs to deliver on them. This cannot be another false dawn.
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Is there a magic money tree?
The paper says that economists at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) caution the prime minister and new chancellor John Healey that “there is no capacity to borrow any more” and that inflation will push up the cost of living much higher than the Bank of England (BoE) is forecasting:
The warning comes amid questions over how Mr Burnham plans to pay for giveaways he announced last week, including a £2 bus fare cap, cutting VAT from energy bills and slashing pub business rates by 20 per cent – all amounting to around £2bn.
At a briefing in Westminster, NIESR director David Aikman said: “It's a tough, tough job being chancellor and I wouldn't wish it on anyone."
According to NIESR’s findings, inflation is set to rise to 3.8 per cent next year, which could see the BoE forced to hike interest rates again to push it down to the government’s 2 per cent target.
In further bad news, economic growth, which was 0.6 per cent for the first quarter of the financial year and 0.4 per cent for the second, is set to plummet to 0.1 per cent in the third quarter.
Mr Aikman added: “Borrowing is at capacity so spending commitments will have to be found through tax rises or spending cuts.”
The findings come after Mr Burnham made around £2bn of new commitments in his first week and alongside widespread speculation that Mr Healey, who quit as defence secretary over a £13bn shortfall in defence spending, wants to find that cash through selling war bonds – an option his predecessor Ms Reeves warned was “just another form of borrowing”.
On top of that, the Treasury needs to find another £4.7bn to fill a black hole in the current defence spending plans, as well as cash to fund Mr Burnham’s reforms to social care and plans to end rough sleeping.
Mr Aikman told the briefing that more borrowing risks the UK “suffering an economic shock” because of uncertainty created by the international environment, including the ongoing war in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s war with Iran.
The NIESR warned that Mr Healey faces a 4 per cent real spending squeeze by the end of the decade – equating to approximately £24bn in 2023 prices – because of higher and more persistent inflation, which will create very difficult trade-offs in the autumn Budget.
The annual NIESR economic outlook underscored that the government has inherited the highest borrowing costs in the G7, heavily backloaded toward an election year, and eroding real purchasing power across public spending.
With public debt stabilising at a high level, but no path to bringing it down, NIESR stressed that any new commitments on defence funding and improving living standards must be funded through taxation or spending reallocations rather than additional borrowing.
Theresa May famously said that there is no magic money tree, can Andy Burnham prove her wrong?
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Burnham disses the Blair vision of a nation of graduates
The paper says that the changes are part of a new drive to tackle “a lost generation” with 1 million young people unemployed or trapped outside education:
It comes after he revealed to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he plans to bring down the welfare bill by making benefits conditional on people finding work, especially ones linked to mental health issues such as anxiety and stress.
But the move to value “the hard hat as much as the graduation cap” is another break with former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair’s legacy, which saw vocational qualifications downgraded in favour of getting 50 per cent of school leavers to university.
Ahead of the announcement, Mr Burnham said: “For too long in this country, students have been told that you must take the academic path to do well and to be respected. The whole school system has been built around it and that has let down young people seeking technical qualifications.
“I want an education system based on parity between academic and technical which gives all young people a clear path in life. From today, Britain will value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap.”
He added: “Fixing the youth unemployment crisis in Britain will require a major shake-up in how we do things – and that’s what this government will do. I want to ensure that our education system leaves no dead ends for our young people. The changes we’re announcing today will just be the start of our work to restore opportunity and hope across the country.”
It represents the biggest shift in education since Michael Gove rolled out the school academies and free school reforms in 2011.
But the focus on vocational qualifications also comes at a time when graduates are being hit with massive levels of debt from paying for tuition fees while many are struggling to find employment.
The new pathways of prestigious technical routes will provide 14-year-olds with early access to technical skills, work experience and connections with local employers.
Mr Burnham believes that funding for the changes will come the existing £570m investment to create additional college places across the country, alongside the wider Department for Education settlement agreed at the 2025 Spending Review, which increased schools funding by £4.7bn by 2028-29.
The prime minister has made it clear that he is determined to put technical education on an equal footing with the traditional academic path and to ensure there are “no dead ends” for young people coming out of the education system.
This will mean providing high-quality technical education routes that are valued and respected by students, parents and employers. In a message directly to students, he will say “whether you choose construction, coding or classics, you’ll get the skills you need and be given the respect you deserve”.
Let's hope that Wales follows suit.
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Jodrell Bank funding crisis is an important test for Burnham
It has since played an important role in the research of meteoroids, quasars, pulsars, masers, and gravitational lenses, and was heavily involved with the tracking of Soviet and US spacecraft of the Space Race. However, it is now under threat.
The Guardian reports that the observatory, which runs a world-leading network of radio telescopes, is facing closure after its major funder cut support for the facility.
The paper says the observatory’s funder, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has said it will withdraw funding for the e-Merlin network that constitutes the UK’s national radio astronomy facility at Jodrell Bank when the current agreement lapses in March 2028:
Scientists said the decision was a blow to UK astronomy, with observations at Jodrell Bank due to end completely unless other funding is found. “Jodrell has been delivering spectacular discovery science for decades,” said Prof Catherine Heymans, Scotland’s astronomer royal. “To see this world-leading facility cut is just devastating.”
The UKRI has an annual budget of nearly £10bn, but the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which it funds, needs to makes severe cuts to meet cost overruns and rising projected costs.
Prof Simon Garrington, an associate director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, told BBC News that staff were “devastated” by the decision. The move threatens 28 jobs at the observatory and will affect nearly 3,000 researchers who work with the facility.
A spokesperson for the STFC said the body had “undertaken a rigorous prioritisation process to focus investment on the areas that will deliver the greatest long-term scientific capability, impact and value for the UK”.
“The decision to withdraw funding from e-MERLIN at the end of its current funding agreement is the result of a comprehensive, evidence-based prioritisation process. As part of this, STFC is focusing investment on the areas that will deliver the greatest long-term scientific capability and value, including the next generation of world-leading radio astronomy facilities,” the spokesperson added.
Jodrell Bank is, of course, in the north, Burnham's fiefdom. It employs local people and is a major tourist attraction and educational facility. In fact, it isn't that far from the Prime Minister's constituency. More importantly, this facility is of national importance and needs to be saved.
This is an opportunity for Burnham to deliver on his claim that science and academic research are key elements in setting the country back on its feet. Will he step up?
Monday, July 27, 2026
Reform UK had bank account frozen during general election
The paper says that the party was unable to make or receive payments through its account with Arbuthnot Latham, a London private and merchant bank, for a two-week period that included polling day on July 4, 2024:
The Reform treasurer at the time repeatedly asked the bank for an explanation, urging it to unfreeze the account. However, Arbuthnot Latham refused. It said it could not unfreeze the account on demand and declined to provide information beyond saying it was performing “compliance checks”.
Days earlier, bankers had made suspicious activity reports to the National Crime Agency concerning more than £1 million in payments received by the party. They related to Fiona Cottrell, a self-styled “retired stylist” whose son paid for Farage’s staff, security, accommodation and social media output before the campaign in a series of undisclosed benefits.
In May 2024, Cottrell’s mother gave £500,000 to the party in her own name. The next month, she gave a further £1 million to a company owned by Richard Tice, Farage’s deputy, who then donated half of that sum to Reform.
In February last year the Metropolitan Police began a criminal investigation into payments she made, on the basis that she may have “disguised” the source of the donations. On Saturday the BBC reported that the ongoing inquiry was specifically examining the transactions involving Tice’s company. Cottrell and his mother have been interviewed under caution by detectives, according to The Guardian.
Taking into account money she donated directly or via Tice’s company, Fiona Cottrell provided 35 per cent of all payments received by Reform during the campaign. She has never commented on the source of her wealth or the subsequent inquiries by the National Crime Agency or Scotland Yard.
Farage, a vocal campaigner against the “banking establishment”, has never mentioned the freeze. The decision to freeze the account of a political party has no known precedent in modern times.
Things are getting interesting in the sage of Reform UK's finances.
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Reality hits the Burnham agenda
The paper says Raynor has denied she was abandoning the commitment, but compared achieving it to her chances of “running the London Marathon”:
Ms Rayner was reappointed housing minister – a job she had resigned from in 2025 after a row over whether she dodged stamp duty – when Andy Burnham became prime minister on Monday.
Ms Rayner said the housebuilding commitment was “very challenging” when it was made two years ago – and was even “more challenging” now as a result of increased construction costs and other factors which had had “a real negative impact”.
However, Ms Rayner was defiant after it was pointed out to her that in its first two years the government had built fewer than 300,000 homes – well short of the number needed to meet the 1.5 million target over five years.
She said: “I’m a straight-talking person, 1.5 million homes is a difficult target… but I’m going to keep it, I’m not going to be defeated.
”People have underestimated me all my life. If you tell me I cannot do something I will fight like hell to get it done.”
England saw 208,600 new homes built in 2024/25, a 6 per cent fall from the previous year and the lowest annual total since 2015/16, highlighting the scale of the challenge facing Labour.
Since Labour entered government in July 2024, around 392,400 net additional homes have been delivered, leaving ministers running at roughly two-thirds of the rate required to hit their goal by 2029.
The housebuilding industry has warned that without stronger consumer confidence, lower mortgage costs and healthier balance sheets across the construction sector, delivering the scale of housebuilding needed to meet Labour’s targets will remain an uphill battle.
Torrin Wilkins, director of Centre Think Tank, said the government should abolish stamp duty and impose binding housebuilding targets on councils to boost growth in the sector.
“The 1.5 million target comes up again and again. It’s almost turning into the tens of thousands immigration target in the Cameron era in that we never seem to be able to meet it and yet it’s constantly brought up,” he said, adding it was “unlikely” the government will meet its target if it does not change direction.
Mr Wilkins said the government should replace stamp duty with a proportional property tax to “unlock” housing sales and give developers incentive to build.
“Developers will look at who can afford homes in this local area and stamp duty is a real block,” he said.
“If Andy Burnham’s aim is breathing space, then abolishing stamp duty is probably the number one on that list because it allows people to upsize and downsize more easily and create that extra space.”
He also recommended councils and local authorities are handed binding targets with consequences for not meeting them.
“I think it would be a good step forward as well, just to really push that this isn’t an optional housing target. This is a national situation and a national emergency that needs to be taken seriously.”
This is an issue I highlighted back in October 2024, when the new Labour government was first embarking on this programme.
To be effective a significant proportion of these new homes need to be social housing, which means that the government must put up the money and work with local councils and housing associations to find the land, get the planning permissions through, with all the complications around that process on environmental sustainability and diversity, infrastructure etc, and then get the houses built.
The infrastructure, even on brown field sites, will be expensive enough without factoring in the build-cost. It is likely to be a two to three year process from start to completion for each site.
They also need to get a skilled workforce in place to undertake the construction, and where they are relying on planning gain for social homes, incentivise builders to bring forward their own plans. And of course for non-social and non-affordable homes they need house builders to see that they are getting sufficient profit on their investment.
This is the reality of just setting targets and hoping that they can be delivered. It means that even in 2024 building 1.5m homes by 2029 was not really possible. Where we are now, it just isn't going to happen.
They also need to get a skilled workforce in place to undertake the construction, and where they are relying on planning gain for social homes, incentivise builders to bring forward their own plans. And of course for non-social and non-affordable homes they need house builders to see that they are getting sufficient profit on their investment.
This is the reality of just setting targets and hoping that they can be delivered. It means that even in 2024 building 1.5m homes by 2029 was not really possible. Where we are now, it just isn't going to happen.
Saturday, July 25, 2026
How Oswald Mosley met his match in Swansea
Wales-on-line reports that he started his Welsh odyssey in Cardiff where his rally was peaceful, but the reaction was vry different in Swansea’s Plaza Cinema that summer when Mosley took written questions from the audience:
The crucial one was, “I work for a Jew. Should I change my employer?” Mosley replied: “I am disgusted that anyone should work for a Jew. You should be certain to find a more reliable gentile.”
Up stood the questioner – to reveal his dog collar. The Rev Leon Atkins’ “employer” was Jesus Christ. At that the huge audience erupted, attacking the Blackshirts as Mosley was rushed away shouting “Blasphemy.” The 19-year-old Dylan Thomas wrote to Pamela Hansford Johnson telling her “I was there and was thrown down the stairs,” adding, “No harm done, however.”
The website explains that Mosley and his blackshirts were well-prepared for fights to break out at their meetings:
Mosley had warned when forming his New Party that “the only methods we shall use will be English ones. We shall rely on the good old English fist.” So at his HQ in the Kings Road, Chelsea he trained a team of enforcers known as the Biff Boys. They would bring the beginning of his downfall.
In June 1934, they acted like Hitler’s brutal Brownshirts during a massive, Nuremberg-style rally at London’s Olympia. MPs from all parties watching the ferocity of their attacks on hecklers were appalled. Not so Lloyd George. He wrote: “I feel that men who enter meetings with the deliberate intention of suppressing free speech have no right to complain if an exasperated audience handles them rudely.”
The following month Lord Rothermere withdrew his support for the Blackshirts, claiming that Jewish businesses had threatened to take their advertising to rival papers. He told Hitler later that year that the Jews compelled him to “toe the line.” It had an effect. In 1934 the BUF had up to 40,000 members. In 1935 it was down to 5,000.
The Blackshirts’ last act in Wales came in 1936 when Tommy Moran [an ex-light heavyweight champion of the Royal Navy and a former miner] took speakers to Tonypandy for a final rally. Annie Powell, Britain’s first Communist mayor, recalled years later “we swore not even one Welsh sheep would hear the Mosley message.”
They didn’t. Hundreds of miners attacked the speakers and even Annie was impressed by Moran. “He kept knocking ‘em out one by one,” she remembered, “but we won.” Tommy Moran was moved from Wales after what went down in our history as the Battle of De Winton Fields and during the war was interned with his leader.
Labels: lochist
Friday, July 24, 2026
The problem with balancing budgets
The paper says that the new transport policy, which was announced yesterday, is set to reverse a cap increase to £3 that was put in place by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in 2024, and is being billed as a landmark measure intended to tackle the cost of living crisis.
However, around £400m of the cost is set to come from switching government investment in international climate finance from grants to loans, with the rest from savings in the budget of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and about £50m from Department for Transport:
Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based think tank Power Shift Africa, was among those criticising the funding move, saying: "Balancing the books on the backs of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people is the wrong choice.
“Climate finance was never meant to be a pot of money that governments raid when they need to pay for domestic spending. It is part of the UK's responsibility to help countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis but are suffering its worst impacts.”
Liberal Democrat MP Monica Harding added that while it is “right to be cutting bus fares”, she believes that Burnham’s approach is “going to further undermine the UK’s standing as a reliable global partner”.
Green MP Ellie Chowns added: “Reducing bus fares is welcome, but it is morally wrong to do so by loading more debt onto some of the poorest countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis and are experiencing some of its most severe consequences.”
The new funding announcement comes after the government already slashed the amount of aid it is set to provide to climate projects as part of its broader programme of aid cuts, from £11.6bn over the past five years (average £2.3bn per year) to £6bn over the next three (average £2bn per year).
Others said switching funding from grants to loans risks exacerbating the debt crises that many developing countries are currently struggling with following global shocks including Covid-19 and the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Many charities have in recent months been highly critical of the UK government for not doing enough to assist indebted developing countries.
“Tackling the cost of living crisis and deepening household debt in the UK should not be paid for by piling more debt onto people in lower-income countries like Malawi and Zambia,” said Heidi Chow, executive director of pressure group Debt Justice
“This is a slap in the face to countries already facing the double catastrophe of an escalating debt crisis and the climate emergency,” she added.
This is a huge problem. Both this and the previous governments have used the overseas aid and now the climate aid budgets as cash cows with serious consequences for those the money is meant to help, as well as the country's soft power in foreign policy.
Thursday, July 23, 2026
Trump offended by key Burnham appointment
The paper says that Andy Burnham has been cautioned that Ed Miliband has some “serious diplomatic repair to undertake” in the US, after his promotion to the role on Monday sparked anger from the Trump administration:
The former energy secretary has previously clashed with Mr Trumpover net zero and his attitudes to democracy and in 2016 he described the president as “a racist, misogynistic, self-confessed groper”.
One source close to the president told The Independent: “There’s genuine anger about this appointment.”
The two men have been attacking one another for more than a decade. Mr Miliband previously said of the president: “We must do our best at home and abroad to resist the worst of Trumpism… These are dark days for America and the world. There can be little solace right now.”
In 2017, he said Mr Trump had “lowered the bar for idiocy” and later joined a Stop Trump March in London. He also criticised the president’s "incredibly peculiar relationship with Russia" and accused him of lowering standards in politics.
The new foreign secretary has also described Mr Trump’s criticism on social media of the UK’s stance on drilling for oil and gas as “irrelevant”, with the president highly critical of his “net zero zealotry" and accusing him of blocking the UK from expanding oil and gas operations in the North Sea.
On Mr Miliband’s past remarks, one ally close to the president told The Independent: “Trump doesn’t forget. He will not forget. Miliband has some serious diplomatic repair to undertake.”
A consultant who works with both the White House and State Department added: “It [Mr Miliband’s appointment] is going down like a lead balloon. The US government no longer takes the UK seriously.
“Ed Miliband is known in Washington for all the wrong reasons. Ed Miliband is seen as an unreasonable ‘nut zero’ extremist who blocked North Sea oil production but was happy for the UK to purchase Norway's fossil fuels from the North Sea.”
The White House is said to be “deeply concerned” about the appointment even though Mr Miliband has previously described how much he loves the US.
They also noted that Mr Burnham himself said in 2021: “Any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed.”
Of course with Trump it is impossible to know what his mood is at any one time. Still, it is an interesting appointment by Andy Burnham.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Can Burnham win the endorsement of Number Ten's most important occupant?
As the Independent reports, Andy Burnham will be Larry the cats seventh Prime Minister:
At 19 years old, the venerable Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office has become a beloved fixture of British public life.
During his 15-year tenure, he has frequently appeared outside the Prime Minister’s central London residence, often providing light relief during tumultuous political moments for the various premiers he has served.
Larry was adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in February 2011, initially intended as a pet for the children of then-prime minister David Cameron and his wife, Samantha.
As chief mouser, he is tasked with controlling the rodent population of the building at the heart of the British Government, although his success has been disputed.
Various felines have occupied the post since the 1920s, and there are even earlier historical records of cats on Government residences dating back to the era of Henry VIII.
Now more than 90 in relative human years, Larry is believed to have made his first kill on the job at the age of four in April 2011.
A favourite among the bank of press cameras, he was witnessed pouncing on a pigeon while the media waited for an update on post-Brexit negotiations with the EU. There have been fractious relationships with other domesticated animals too.
Larry was known to fight with the late Palmerston, a cat brought in to control the mouse population in the Foreign Office buildings neighbouring Downing Street.
Former chancellor George Osborne’s cat Freya also fought with Larry when she lived at Downing Street, although the two were also said to have largely coexisted peacefully.
Akshata Murty, the wife of former prime minister and chancellor Rishi Sunak, once told Sky News Larry had “heated exchanges” with her family’s Labrador puppy Nova while they lived in Downing Street, with the cat always having “come out on top”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in February last year he was initially having to keep his family’s Siberian kitten Prince away from Larry, in case the Downing Street veteran “doesn’t like him”.
The Starmers had two cats when he took office in 2024, Prince and Jojo.
Larry has also been reported to be “not very keen on men”, according to Lord Cameron, who was surprised at how well the pet gelled with then-US president Barack Obama, one of the many international guests Larry has welcomed to Downing Street.
The chief mouser sometimes appears in official records of such visits, and can be seen lurking on a windowsill in a photograph of Baroness Theresa May with US President Donald Trump while she was prime minister.
The relationship between Burnham and Larry has got off to a good start, with the Chief Mouser presenting the media with a dead rodent yesterday, but it is pretty telling that there are no actual pictures of the two of them, even rumours that the new Prime Minister has a dog. There could be trouble ahead.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Reform MP starts digging her own Standards hole
The paper says that Sarah Pochin, the Runcorn MP, said Farage had called a byelection in his Clacton seat so voters could decide whether they backed him or not, and argued that “the media, the British state and the old parties have mounted a vicious and desperate campaign to stop Reform UK”:
She posted on X: “We can’t call a general election, so rather than submit to a kangaroo court in parliament, Nigel Farage has handed the power back to the people of Clacton. P.S. Clacton was once one of the safest Tory seats … now they won’t even field a candidate against him. Wonder why?”
Farage had previously said the investigation into him by the parliamentary standards watchdog was “being used as a political tool” and Reform sources had suggested the commissioner and committee were illegitimate.
However, Pochin’s remarks go further in suggesting that the process is unfair, with a predetermined verdict, and mark an escalation of Farage’s supporters attempting to undermine the standards system.
Her remarks echo those of Boris Johnson, who claimed that the privileges committee was a “kangaroo court” when it found he deliberately misled parliament over Covid rule-breaking in No 10.
The standards commissioner is currently looking into whether Farage should have declared a £5m gift from the Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne given to him before the last election. Farage has always said he was not in politics at the time the gift was made.
The inquiry was later widened to look at whether he should have declared support from his friend and fraudster George Cottrell, who provided accommodation at one of the London homes he rented to Farage, and also paid for some social media filming in 2024.
Farage told the Triggernometry podcast over the weekend that it was “totally undeclarable in every single way”.
He acknowledged that the parliamentary standards system could find against him but claimed he had sought advice from a “top international lawyer” who told him the £5m did not need to be declared because it was unconditional and had a document drawn up saying it was given freely.
The rules state that gifts and benefits in kind have to be declared for the 12 months prior to an MP entering parliament, but only if they are political.
It will be interesting to see how the independent Standards Commissioner reacts to being accused of running a vendetta against Farage. It is very possible that Pochin is in breach herself and is digging a very large hole by her comments.
Monday, July 20, 2026
Burnham starts with the low-hanging fruit
The programme was hugely problematic, expensive, a threat to civil liberties, and the embodiment of a touching faith in new technology to solve all our problems.
As the Guardian reports, that the new Labour leader plans to redirect the resources earmarked for the scheme towards tackling the cost of living.
However, the paper adds that it is unclear how much money the decision to scrap the controversial project will save as Starmer’s government did not set out a clear budget for the initiative:
The Office for Budget Responsibility suggested it could cost about £1.8bn, but its estimate was rejected by officials.
Starmer first announced plans for a digital ID scheme last September, as part of plans to combat illegal working. It was planned to be rolled out by 2029.
He said the proposed “Brit card” would be compulsory for those who needed to prove they were allowed to work in the UK amid growing fears about illegal immigration.
The cards were to detail the holder’s residency status, name, date of birth and nationality, alongside their photograph.
Starmer billed the rollout as “an enormous opportunity for the UK” and said the ID cards “will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure”.
Tony Blair’s government passed legislation designed to facilitate the introduction of ID cards in 2006, to the anger of many privacy campaigners. His plans never came into force and were ultimately scrapped by the coalition government in 2011.
The Tony Blair Institute, set up by the former prime minister after his departure from frontline politics, was one of several Labour-aligned thinktanks to welcome the fresh proposals put forward by Starmer.
“Make no mistake, if the government announces a universal digital ID to help improve our public services, it would be one of the most important steps taken by this or any government to make British citizens’ everyday lives easier and build trust,” its director of government innovation, Alexander Iosad, said.
However, the plans attracted widespread backlash from opposition politicians and civil rights groups.
The Conservative MP David Davis said: “No system is immune to failure, and we have seen time and again governments and tech giants fail to protect people’s personal data. If world-leading companies cannot protect our data, I have little faith that Whitehall would be able to do better.”
It is a good start by Burnham, let's see if he can carry on in that vein.
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Is Farage set to lose Clacton?
The Independent reports that Farage has, in the words of one constituent in Clacton, “gone full conspiracy theory” in explaining to voters there why he has called his surprise by-election:
A look at the local Facebook pages and other forums shows that the contest against Count Binface – and more than 30 other candidates – with all the other main parties boycotting “a fake by-election” is not giving Mr Farage the full support and acclaim he may have hoped for in the Essex town and villages he hopes to represent again.
In his letter explaining why he has called a by-election, Mr Farage has clearly decided not to hold back in his claims that he and his friends are victims of a grand conspiracy involving Labour, the establishment and the media.
In what one constituent described as “a self-pitying diatribe”, he wrote: “Since I was elected, the Labour government, their friends in the media and the establishment in this country have done everything they can to destroy me, my family, the party, our donors and the millions of people like you who support us.”
He went on: “They have vilified us. They have sought to intimidate us. They have made life harder for those around us.”
He claimed the media/establishment conspiracy has “made it increasingly difficult to provide the security my family needs while at the same time publishing stories that make security even more necessary”.
In an oblique reference to his row with Sky News over doorstepping, he alleged his home and family “have been targeted” and declared: “I have had enough!”
But the Reform UK leader did not stop there and instead waded into the weeds of a much deeper conspiracy.
“To make things worse the establishment is now seeking to rewrite the rules of politics itself.”
He alleged that votes for 16-year-olds, and attempts to postpone council elections in Essex because of a local government reorganisation and change donation rules banning foreign donations and cryptocurrency are all designed to “stop Reform”.
There is no mention of the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne or the £5m donation he gave the Reform UK leader which went undeclared with the parliamentary authorities and Electoral Commission and is now subject to an investigation.
It also failed to mention the convicted criminal George Cottrell, who was an ever-present in Clacton during the general election and part of Mr Farage’s inner circle for more than a decade.
Although the reference to “friends” may have meant “Posh George”, as Mr Cottrell is known.
But Mr Farage claimed: “Week after week politicians and the media have worked together to plant negative stories with the intention of suspending me as your MP. Their aim is to force a by-election so the people of Clacton will vote against me.”
This is why he claims he has asked for an early by-election, while not mentioning that they may have another contest soon if he is suspended.
But he concluded: “This is a contest between the people of Clacton and the entire political establishment.”
His constituents though appear to have spotted the bullshit and spoken out online:
In one local Facebook group, a voter fact-checked the letter using AI.
They said: “Several of the claims are either false or rhetorical dressed up as fact.”
On donations and the delay of the Essex election, they noted: “There is no evidence [they were] specifically targeting Reform.”
On Mr Farage suggesting the establishment “cannot beat us fairly at the ballot box”, they noted: “This is opinion not fact and it’s ageing badly. Recent Ipsos polling shows Reform’s lead over Labour narrowing sharply.”
They also noted that Mr Farage falsely claimed the investigation into him is being run by “the Labour government” when “the actual investigation is being run by the Independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards”.
And they noted that the reference to 350 poll leads by Mr Farage is “being used to imply invincibility at exactly the moment his actual polling lead is shrinking”.
Another constituent got more than 3,000 likes for a suggestion: “MP stands for missing person. Farage is throwing a ball for dogs and we are the dog.”
There is also some disquiet over concerns Mr Farage is attempting to weaponise Ann Widdecombe’s murder.
“He even used putting a wreath for Ann’s murder to get on TV, [and] was caught waiting for the cameraman to roll,” said one constituent.
One is tempted to suggest that if the notoriously thin-skinned Reform UK leader can't stand the heat, he should get out of the kitchen. Scrutiny is a normal part of the political process, there is no reason why Farage should be exempt from it.
And if he seeks to bend the rules by using secretive cryptocurrency trnsactions to fund his party and pull in millions of pounds from abroad, then he should expect that those abuses are properly regulated.
Farage's plan is not working out as he hoped, and if Count Binface does well, or even wins, then most of the country will be laughing at a man who seemingly can't stand being laughed at.
Farage's plan is not working out as he hoped, and if Count Binface does well, or even wins, then most of the country will be laughing at a man who seemingly can't stand being laughed at.
Saturday, July 18, 2026
The cinema in a church that became a curry house
They say that after the church's closure, a veteran of the cinema scene in South Wales, Lynn Thomas, bought the building and converted it into Studio Cinemas, which opened in 1977:
Studio Cinemas originally had two screens, but when a third was added, the cinema changed its name to Studios 1-2-3.
Screen 1 was located in the main body of the former church. Screen 2 was located in the former crypt underneath the building, and Screen 3 was placed behind Screen 1 - in the area formerly occupied by the altar.
According to accounts, the 484-capacity complex was a rather DIY affair. People who visited remember that:
* At least some of the seating was salvaged from the Albert Hall and the Carlton (two Swansea cinemas that had already closed, or were on their last legs).
* Two salvaged car speakers were mounted on the walls of Screen 3 and advertised as “Studio Stereo.”
* Projectors were set up on steel file cabinets laid on their side and the old church pews to get the beam above people’s heads.
* In the crypt, the screen was projected using a homemade inverted periscope.
The rather ramshackle nature of the cinema did cause some problems:
In March 1989, Swansea Council pulled up Lynn Thomas about the state of his premises, the front of which was full of rubbish and overgrown with brambles. “It’s a tip, an absolute disgrace,” Councillor Richard Lewis told the public protection committee.
Thomas defended himself, saying that he did tidy the premises daily, but by the evening it was full of discarded rubbish again. As for the brambles, he added that they “are living breathing things, though beauty is in the eye of the beholder… If the council is willing to give me a grant I will do something about it.”
There were complaints about the inside of the cinema too. Two years earlier, The Studio was at risk of losing its license after it was discovered that extensive fire safety work and repairs were required to bring it up to standard. Problems noted included batteries in the boiler room (an explosion risk), loose floorboards, filthy carpets, and fire exit doors that were bolted shut.
Despite all of its troubles, Studio Cinemas survived until the opening of Parc Tawe’s new £5 million 10-screen UCI cinema at the end of September 1989. It closed for its regular annual summer holiday in August, but never re-opened.
Lynn Thomas told The Evening Post in November of that year: “I am considering whether to close down and move elsewhere or re-open after major refurbishment… but so far nothing has been decided.”
Should he re-open, Thomas was concerned that a city like Swansea would not be able to sustain a total of 17 screens across all its cinemas. He added, “… change is inevitable and it may be that after being in a winning situation for 13 years we’re now in a losing situation.”
The Studio Cinemas building was put up for sale in April 1990, with plans at various times for a nightclub, or offices with an underground car park.
It was bought and renovated in the 2000s, becoming a rather smart Indian restaurant called Miahs. However, that business has also closed and the church is now derelict.
Labels: lochist
Friday, July 17, 2026
Reform hypocrisy on 'hurty words'
He talks about his own experience as the son of a former cabinet minister and the protection officers who dominated his formative years, with emergency buttons everywhere and discusses the response of Reform politicians in particular, who, rightly or wrongly, believe that they are all targets and that nobody cares:
Frightened people say foolish things but it’s hard not to notice how closely Reform UK’s response to Widdecombe’s death has matched its broader political messaging. “It’s as though someone in the establishment wants us dead,” said Richard Tice of the authorities’ failure, thus far, to hand out bodyguards. Obviously I haven’t phoned the establishment to check but this strikes me as grandiose. What, all of you? Not just the boss? Even if Britain functioned like Russia, I’m not sure they’d think it worth the bother. What’s more, it appears Nigel Farage was offered protection equal to Kemi Badenoch and turned it down. That doesn’t mean Tice is wrong to be worried. Of course he isn’t. If Widdecombe was at risk, he could be too. Maniacs follow no rules.
So what to do about them? Yesterday, Reform’s party chairman, Zia Yusuf, demanded round-the-clock protection for all 650 MPs. Aside from the expense, the obvious flaw here is that this wouldn’t have helped Widdecombe, who wasn’t one, any more than it would Yusuf himself, who isn’t either. It also only deals with a symptom of the real problem. Because if we really do now live in a country where every MP requires the sort of protection once needed by a small handful of cabinet ministers, then surely that’s the bit to fix.
Here, though, Reform is on tricky ground. Yesterday Yusuf also hit out at rival politicians for “equating us to murderous regimes that butchered tens of millions of people”, on the basis that it might incite violence. I agree with him. I’m not sure he agrees with himself.
Reform, remember, is also the party that put Lucy Connolly on stage, introducing her as “Britain’s favourite political prisoner” after she called for asylum hotels to be firebombed. For two years they led, with sneers, the argument that mere “hurty words” hurt nobody. Meanwhile, Farage has accused Richard Hermer, the attorney-general, of “hating our history and our country” and accused plenty more of plenty more. This very week, Yusuf himself, who seems to be growing increasingly wild, hit back at the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor — who mildly chided Farage for politicising Widdecombe’s death — by publicly denouncing him as “depraved” for a historic gay sex offence that today wouldn’t be illegal. He is also still telling his followers that the Tories “destroyed Britain” and that Andy Burnham is about to destroy it even more. And on, and on.
Either this matters, or it doesn’t. Either maniacs are inspired by incendiary language or they are not. Personally, I think the link is diffuse, but I also think it pretty damn obvious that the more violent and condemnatory our discourse, the more likely it becomes that various maniacs will find focus for their mania.
A week ago, Reform would have called me a snowflake for that. Should their own children come to find themselves living in houses full of buttons they mustn’t press, I wonder if they’ll ever admit, even if only to themselves, that they got this one wrong.
He has a point. Reform politicians have been at the forefront of using this sort of language to demonise people and to encourage people to take matters into their own hands. They say they are victims of establishment hatred, but they are perpetrators as well.
Thursday, July 16, 2026
Has the Chancellor set the tone for a Burnham administration?
The paper adds that reflecting on her two years in the Treasury, Chancellor Reeves urged Britain to be "much bolder" and go "much further" in pursuing closer ties with the bloc:
Ms Reeves also defended her record, stating the economy had "beaten the odds" under her stewardship and she had proven her credibility in "every decision" since Labour was elected.
She concluded by urging incoming prime minister Andy Burnham to balance "radical change" with economic credibility, a mission she said had defined the Labour government and "I know it will remain the mission of the next."
In a speech at Mansion House, Ms Reeves said: “This government has shown that change, indeed radical change, is possible, and the record of the last two years makes clear that governments can achieve that change only when they combine radicalism with credibility.
“I had to earn that credibility in opposition, and I have proven it in government in every action that I have taken as Chancellor.”
Ms Reeves, who has long been a vocal proponent of deepening post-Brexit ties with Brussels, also said the prize of a stronger relationship with the trading bloc would be “immense”.
She called for a UK-EU summit, which was due this month but thrown into doubt after Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation, to be rescheduled “as soon as possible” to finalise plans for a youth mobility scheme and other agreements on agrifoods and emissions.
Ms Reeves said: “In the age of insecurity in which we live, the economic strength of our country rests on strategic alliances, and no alliance is more important to us than our relationship with the European Union.
“I think that we need to be much bolder and go much further moving towards a trusted economic and security partnership, where the default is the UK is included not excluded, recognising that in the majority of cases, that will be the approach with the greatest benefits for Britain.”
It comes after a period of strained UK-US relations, which deteriorated after Sir Keir Starmer ruled out British involvement in the Iran war.
The future of our relations with the EU are absolutely crucial if we are to revive our economy and benefit from sustained growth. The Rachel Reeves may not retain her job under a Burnham administration but she has set a challenge for her successor and the new Prime Minister that must be responded to positively.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Reform adopt the Trump agenda on elections
Reform haven't gone that far yet, though they are not in a position to implement those sort of changes, but an amendment to the elections bill by their MPs certainly seems to be of the same ilk.
Byline Times portrays this amendement as seeking to prevent candidates from using the Irish language, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish on election leaflets, but of course any provision that restricts official literature to just English and Welsh text also undermines attempts to communicate with ethnic minorities in their own language as well, a group that is already having its voting rights affected by the requirement to present ID at polling stations.
The website says that the Reform-backed amendment would mean candidates who use languages that are not English and Welsh would face prison time. It would also impact on the Good Friday Agreement, but that has never been a problem for Reform UK:
New Clause 107 to the Representation of the People Bill – tabled by Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice and co-signed by every sitting Reform MP (including Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman) – would require all election publications material to be “in the English language or the Welsh language” only.
Publishing campaign material in any other language would become a criminal offence – punishable on summary conviction by up to six months’ imprisonment and/or a fine, and becoming an illegal practice for candidates, agents and parties.
The penalties are drafted to apply across the UK – including in Northern Ireland, where the Irish language and Ulster-Scots are protected in law and under the Good Friday Agreement designed to end the decades-long civil war.
The ban on languages other than English or Welsh would appear to criminalise election material published in Irish, used in parts of Northern Ireland, and Scottish Gaelic – including the bilingual leaflets routinely used in constituencies such as Na h-Eileanan an Iar – while exempting Welsh.
Five of six Cornish MPs (four Labour and one Lib Dem) have signed a joint statement at the bottom of this piece, exclusively published by Byline Times, condemning Reform’s proposals.
And the Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow says it is “unbelievable” that MPs from Reform UK have tabled the amendment to the Representation of the People Bill in the House of Commons.
The Scottish National Party has also come out strongly against the proposals. SNP MSP for the Highlands and Islands Maree Todd said: “This despicable anti-Scottish amendment reveals exactly what Reform really thinks of Scotland – and would threaten anyone publishing election materials in Scots or Gaelic with up to six months in prison.
“It’s not even as if this amendment was introduced by one rogue MP – it was tabled by Reform’s Deputy Leader, and co-signed by a number of their MPs.
“Reform must now do the right thing – apologise to the people of Scotland for attempting to criminalise election materials written in the Scottish languages, and immediately withdraw this outrageous amendment.”
An SNP source said “plenty of our election material would fall foul of this – lots of SNP campaign literature, especially in the Western Isles, features Gaelic, even if the materials are not written exclusively in the language, though some are.”
Lots of SNP literature also uses Scots words and phrases, with Scots identified as a distinct language under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. The UK ratified the charter in 2001.
Since there is often overlap, Reform would then presumably have to increase funding for police to identify what they deemed English versus what was Scots.
The SNP has previously offered Gaelic translations of party manifestos, something which would likely be illegal under Reform’s amendment.
Sophia Smith Galer, a language expert and author of How to Kill a Language, told Byline Times the move was “plainly discriminatory.”
“It’s discriminatory not only to the other indigenous languages of the UK affected by this — the ones that aren’t English and Welsh — but also to individuals who could be publishing political literature in any of the migrant languages that also have a home here.”
She added that Reform UK wants to “frame languages as a problem, and as part of a wider problem — multiculturalism.”
“This is part of a broader vilification of languages other than English.”
Britain is a signatory to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Smith Galer said it was the defining “instrument we have that protects and promotes language diversity, and minority languages especially… They would take a very dim view of this too.”
A law like this would be “unique in Western Europe,” the linguistics journalist noted. “It’s not something any of our peers has done.”
“What’s funny is that, to police this, you’d probably need multilingual policing. You’d actually require language skills to enforce it. I don’t know if Reform were planning on creating multilingual jobs — I wouldn’t recommend this as the way to go about it — but that’s accidentally what they’ve created.”
This is part of Reform's war on multicultural Britain, an attempt to turn the clock back to an imagined ideal of an all-white, English-speaking UK that never actually existed. Their amendment doesn't just expose their disdain for the country they are meant to represent, but also their ignorance of history and British culture.
Byline Times portrays this amendement as seeking to prevent candidates from using the Irish language, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish on election leaflets, but of course any provision that restricts official literature to just English and Welsh text also undermines attempts to communicate with ethnic minorities in their own language as well, a group that is already having its voting rights affected by the requirement to present ID at polling stations.
The website says that the Reform-backed amendment would mean candidates who use languages that are not English and Welsh would face prison time. It would also impact on the Good Friday Agreement, but that has never been a problem for Reform UK:
New Clause 107 to the Representation of the People Bill – tabled by Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice and co-signed by every sitting Reform MP (including Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman) – would require all election publications material to be “in the English language or the Welsh language” only.
Publishing campaign material in any other language would become a criminal offence – punishable on summary conviction by up to six months’ imprisonment and/or a fine, and becoming an illegal practice for candidates, agents and parties.
The penalties are drafted to apply across the UK – including in Northern Ireland, where the Irish language and Ulster-Scots are protected in law and under the Good Friday Agreement designed to end the decades-long civil war.
The ban on languages other than English or Welsh would appear to criminalise election material published in Irish, used in parts of Northern Ireland, and Scottish Gaelic – including the bilingual leaflets routinely used in constituencies such as Na h-Eileanan an Iar – while exempting Welsh.
Five of six Cornish MPs (four Labour and one Lib Dem) have signed a joint statement at the bottom of this piece, exclusively published by Byline Times, condemning Reform’s proposals.
And the Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow says it is “unbelievable” that MPs from Reform UK have tabled the amendment to the Representation of the People Bill in the House of Commons.
The Scottish National Party has also come out strongly against the proposals. SNP MSP for the Highlands and Islands Maree Todd said: “This despicable anti-Scottish amendment reveals exactly what Reform really thinks of Scotland – and would threaten anyone publishing election materials in Scots or Gaelic with up to six months in prison.
“It’s not even as if this amendment was introduced by one rogue MP – it was tabled by Reform’s Deputy Leader, and co-signed by a number of their MPs.
“Reform must now do the right thing – apologise to the people of Scotland for attempting to criminalise election materials written in the Scottish languages, and immediately withdraw this outrageous amendment.”
An SNP source said “plenty of our election material would fall foul of this – lots of SNP campaign literature, especially in the Western Isles, features Gaelic, even if the materials are not written exclusively in the language, though some are.”
Lots of SNP literature also uses Scots words and phrases, with Scots identified as a distinct language under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. The UK ratified the charter in 2001.
Since there is often overlap, Reform would then presumably have to increase funding for police to identify what they deemed English versus what was Scots.
The SNP has previously offered Gaelic translations of party manifestos, something which would likely be illegal under Reform’s amendment.
Sophia Smith Galer, a language expert and author of How to Kill a Language, told Byline Times the move was “plainly discriminatory.”
“It’s discriminatory not only to the other indigenous languages of the UK affected by this — the ones that aren’t English and Welsh — but also to individuals who could be publishing political literature in any of the migrant languages that also have a home here.”
She added that Reform UK wants to “frame languages as a problem, and as part of a wider problem — multiculturalism.”
“This is part of a broader vilification of languages other than English.”
Britain is a signatory to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Smith Galer said it was the defining “instrument we have that protects and promotes language diversity, and minority languages especially… They would take a very dim view of this too.”
A law like this would be “unique in Western Europe,” the linguistics journalist noted. “It’s not something any of our peers has done.”
“What’s funny is that, to police this, you’d probably need multilingual policing. You’d actually require language skills to enforce it. I don’t know if Reform were planning on creating multilingual jobs — I wouldn’t recommend this as the way to go about it — but that’s accidentally what they’ve created.”
This is part of Reform's war on multicultural Britain, an attempt to turn the clock back to an imagined ideal of an all-white, English-speaking UK that never actually existed. Their amendment doesn't just expose their disdain for the country they are meant to represent, but also their ignorance of history and British culture.
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Are Plaid Cymru serious about government?
The news site says that at a meeting of the British Irish Council on Guernsey on Friday, Plaid Cymru's First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said it was "Labour's call" and the proposal was "the offer" because ministers were working under tight financial constraints. But is that good enough from a party that has taken on the responsibiity of government?
The difference between the two parties lies with a single issue, with Plaid Cymru having pitched an extra £80m over two years for pupils with additional learning needs, but Labour holding out for £100m in this supplementary budget alone:
Labour's finance spokesperson Huw Thomas said the party would oppose the budget "as it stands".
Ap Iorwerth told BBC Wales that Labour should "reflect on why they would want to disappoint parents and local authorities... when there was such a comprehensive package on the table".
He added: "It's their call now."
Asked if he would have to go back to Labour with an improved offer, he said: "We have this offer on the table, which is 10 times more than Labour was going to spend on additional learning needs.
"We are ready to move forward with this."
Ap Iorwerth said that his government had pushed the boundaries and were working in a very tight constraint.
In response Huw Thomas said the offer was not enough.
"As it stands we will be opposing it now," he said.
He added: "There are certain things that happen if the supplementary budget isn't passed, but we'll be available to come back and vote for it the following week if that's what Plaid wants to do, if they meet our demands."
This is the first big test for the new minority government and they appear to be failing it badly, choosing instead an oppositional war of words rather than taking responsibility and going back to the negotiating table.
Labour and those other parties who are supporting headteachers and local councils on the issue of ALN funding have a valid case, but more importantly they have the luxury of holding out until they get what they want or something close to it.
Ministers do not have that luxury. The vote on the supplementary budget could be a painful wake-up call for Plaid Cymru.
Monday, July 13, 2026
Binface: the back story
The paper says that the likelihood is that when the residents of Clacton come to cast their votes in the newly announced by-election later this summer, they will have a choice between two main candidates: a man with a habit of spouting (what is, to some) total rubbish and… a sentient bin.
This is because, in a rare show of unity, the major parties have refused to put forward candidates to fight in Clacton. Labour and the Tories alike have disdained Farage’s decision, with Kemi Badenoch describing the by-election as “fake” and Keir Starmer calling it “a desperate political stunt”.
This means that Farage’s only challenger appears to be Count Binface, the intergalactic rubbish basket-wearing alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey, who, over the course of the past decade, has become a strange fixture of British politics, sneaking into the frame of almost every big election. But who is this enigmatic alien?
The paper says that Harvey studied Classics at Oxford before embarking on a writing career, which has seen him work on TV shows such as Have I Got News for You, The Revolution Will Be Televised and Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It, which surely allowed him to hone his appreciation for the topsy-turvy weirdness of Westminster:
His interest in comedy and politics, he has previously revealed, was fostered by his older brother Dan during a childhood that was often turbulent, Harvey explained in a powerful piece for The Times in 2024. Their dad was an alcoholic, and he wrote, “we suffered it as a secret shame and it burnt us”; the brothers got through it by “wrap[ping] ourselves in a comfort blanket of shared passions”, laughing at old episodes of Blackadder.
In 2015, Dan died unexpectedly at the age of 43 and was posthumously diagnosed with diabetes. Since then, Harvey has admitted, he has struggled with the sense of guilt that so often plagues the suddenly bereaved. “In low moments, my heart thumps with failure. The thought that I could have done something else,” he told The Times. “That I should have tried harder.”
His strange side hustle as a joke candidate, he reckons, emerged as an “admittedly eccentric” means to keep Dan’s spirit alive and “to help his joy continue to radiate”. His first foray into politics was under the guise of Lord Buckethead, a creation inspired by a character from the sci-fi parody Gremloids, a 1984 movie that aimed to spoof Star Wars; Buckethead was their low-budget version of Darth Vader.
Donning a tall black bucket on, erm, his head, Harvey contested the 2017 general election against then-PM Theresa May in her Maidenhead constituency; he earned 249 votes by promising “strong, not entirely stable leadership”.
When Buckethead’s political travails were covered in the media, however, Harvey became embroiled in a copyright row with the writer of Gremloids, and so decided to take on a new cosmic persona, giving himself a slight title bump-up in the process. Count Binface was born.
He went on to stand against Johnson (in 2019) and Sunak (in 2024), as well as taking part in the London mayoral elections twice, with his biggest success coming in 2021, when he earned more votes than far-right group Britain First’s candidate Nick Scanlon. His campaigns tend to be crowdfunded online, with any surplus going to the homelessness charity Shelter.
When he’s not dressing up as a trash can, Harvey lives in Sussex with his wife Sarah, an actor and voice artist, and their two children; in a recent feature for The Times, he revealed how he has been camping out in the living room since their youngest was born, to allow Sarah to peacefully co-sleep with the baby.
And even space aristocracy, it seems, are feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis. “My wife and I are both freelancers, so our incomes can vary wildly and I’m the primary breadwinner, which brings pressures of its own, especially now I’m a father of two,” he wrote in the same paper earlier this week.
After Farage has spent so long attempting to turn political discourse into theatre, there’s a certain logic to the fact that he now seems about to be joined on that stage by a jester – especially one who might appeal to those who think that politics is, well, rubbish.
It's going to difficult for Farage to argue he is being victimised by the establishment when his chief opponent is an alien with a bin on his head.
Sunday, July 12, 2026
Convicted fraudster was introduced as Farage’s chief of staff
The paper says that others who have been closely involved in the party have also claimed Cottrell arranged the Land Rovers that ferried Reform’s newly elected MPs to parliament, and that he covered the cost of a fundraising lunch with potential donors before the national vote:
Questions about the role of Cottrell – who is a convicted fraudster – and the extent to which he has provided undeclared support for Farage have been building over the past week as the Reform leader comes under unprecedented pressure.
On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed that a loan from Cottrell to Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, was highlighted by bankers in suspicious activity reports. SARs are a way to raise concerns with the National Crime Agency; they are not proof of wrongdoing but flags for further investigation.
Among other SARs about transactions involving Reform was one relating to a £1m donation from Cottrell’s mother, Fiona, to Britain Means Business, a fundraising organisation for the party. The Guardian understands bank staff were not satisfied that the funds had ultimately come from her.
The Times reported this week that Cottrell had given out a business card with his name on and an official email address for Farage and had provided security, accommodation and staffing for the Reform leader before the election.
Tony Mack, who was initially Reform’s candidate for the Essex constituency of Clacton in 2024, told the Guardian that Cottrell was introduced as Farage’s chief of staff during meetings.
“I remember thinking that it was an odd term to use for someone who was unelected at that point,” said Mack, a psychotherapist and charity worker.
Things really are starting to get interesting now.
Saturday, July 11, 2026
The largest abbey in Wales
The Abbey was established in 1129 AD when Richard I de Grenville, one of the Twelve Knights of Glamorgan, gave 8,000 acres of his estate in Glamorgan to Savigniac monks from western Normandy:
The first monks arrived in 1130. Following the merging of the Savigniac order into the Cistercian order in 1147, Neath Abbey also became a Cistercian house. The abbey was ravaged by the Welsh uprisings of the 13th century. During the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII of England the last abbot, Lleision ap Thomas, managed to buy time through payment of a large fine in 1536, but the abbey was dissolved in 1539. In letters to the Cistercian General Chapter, Lleision served as a spokesman for the Welsh abbeys.
At this time, the abbey was turned into a large estate, initially granted to Richard Williams, although by 1600 it was owned by Sir John Herbert, and had a substantial Tudor mansion occupying a part of the cloisters. The mansion itself was only habitable for 100 years or so, before being abandoned as the site became a scene of industry.
By 1730, some of the buildings were being used for copper smelting, and the rest were abandoned. In the late 18th century, an iron foundry was opened near the abbey ruins by a company owned by the Price, Fox and Tregelles families. The ruined walls of both the Abbey and later mansion were gradually engulfed in quantities of industrial waste. The ownership of the site passed to the Rice family, Barons Dynevor, and it was in the 1920s, under Walter FitzUryan Rice, 7th Baron Dynevor that a local group of amateur archaeologists began the process of uncovering the medieval ruins.
As the site says the site has also had some commercial uses in modern times:
A motorcycle speedway track was constructed in 1962 and the Neath Welsh Dragons rode for one year adjacent to the Abbey. The west side of the Abbey was so close to the banking that the Abbey ruins looked as though it formed part of the track.
The area adjacent to the ruins is used by a car retailer and a number of smaller businesses and workshops.
The site has been used to film several episodes of television series Doctor Who. The Time Lord (played by Matt Smith) and his companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) have filmed several times at the site, which was transformed into a complete structure.
The site was also used for shots during the filming of the BBC television series Merlin, for example the castle of the ancient kings where Arthur rediscovered the round table in Series 3 episode 13
The West Glamorgan Archive service currently holds the world-renowned Neath Abbey Ironworks collection, comprising around 8,000 engineering drawings dating from 1792 to 1882.
These ironworks were built by the Quaker firm of Fox and Company of Cornwall in 1792, finally closing in 1885. During its lifetime, the works produced stationary mining engines, railway locomotives, steam and iron sailing ships for customers, mostly in the United Kingdom but sometimes for British and foreign entrepreneurs based on the European continent and much further abroad, in Mexico and Australia for example.
Labels: lochist
Friday, July 10, 2026
Ex-Labour MP tells of being sidelined to enable Starmer parachutist
The news site says that in a statement posted on Facebook on Wednesday, the ex-Labour MP said he wanted to set the record straight “in case there remains any misunderstanding” about his departure from the party after more than 40 years of membership:
Mr Davies represented Swansea West from 2010 until 2024, winning four elections, and previously served as MP for Croydon Central.
He was suspended by Labour in June 2023 after allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women were published anonymously online — allegations he denied, which did not involve criminal conduct, and which were never tested at a hearing.
Mr Davies says the suspension came a week before he was due to be confirmed as Labour’s Swansea West candidate for the 2024 general election.
In an interview with Nation.Cymru last month, he said the party’s handling of the case amounted to being put on “political death row”.
He says he waited 23 weeks to be told what the complaints against him were — against a six-week standard recommended by the party-commissioned Forde Report — and that no disciplinary hearing was convened in more than a year of suspension.
When the general election was called in May 2024, he says the party refused to hold a hearing in the two weeks before candidate nominations closed — meaning he remained suspended and could not stand as Labour’s candidate.
Mr Davies says he repeatedly asked for the hearing he believed would clear his name, and responded to the complaints within two weeks of finally receiving them.
He resigned from the party after the election, describing its complaints process as one he had “completely lost my trust and confidence” in.
Torsten Bell, now Pensions Minister, was selected as Labour’s Swansea West candidate and elected in July 2024.
The complaints process was overseen by the party’s then executive legal director, Alex Barros-Curtis — who was later selected as Labour’s candidate for the vacant Cardiff West seat, and elected in July 2024.
Mr Davies told Nation.Cymru it was “difficult not to conclude” that the objective of the process “was not to get to the truth of the allegation in an independent forum, but to ensure that I did not stand for re-election”.
In a statement, a Labour Party spokesperson said the party “assesses all complaints thoroughly in line with our rules and procedures”.
Although Davies' statement is inevitably self-serving, it still provides some insight into how the Labour Party operates and the way they create spaces for their favoured parachutists.
Thursday, July 09, 2026
National Crime Agency asked to look at Reform UK funding
The paper says that, separately to the undisclosed £5m gift provided to the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, by a cryptocurrency billionaire shortly before the 2024 general election being reported to the NCA, banking staff judged that transfers of funds between Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, a major donor, Fiona Cottrell, and the senior party figure and convicted fraudster George Cottrell, required further investigation:
Suspicious activity reports (SARs) raised by bankers were passed to the NCA for examination.
Tice, via lawyers, threatened to injunct the Guardian to stop it publishing these details.
Without responding to any of the questions put to him, Tice then appears to have shared the allegations contained in the Guardian’s requests for comment with the Telegraph, which wrote them up without credit or contact ahead of publication.
The disclosures have come from a Guardian investigation in which a number of finance industry sources have provided information they believe raises questions over the funding of Reform UK.
...
The Guardian understands finance industry figures have raised at least four SARs relating to concerns about transactions involving senior figures in Reform:
* One relates to a £1m donation made to Britain Means Business, a fundraising organisation for Reform UK, before the last general election. Half of the £1m was then transferred by Tice, as director of the company, to Reform UK. Renamed from Leave Means Leave, Britain Means Business is a company that is used to help fund Reform. The £1m seemingly came from the aristocrat and Reform UK donor Fiona Cottrell. In this instance, the Guardian understands bank staff were not satisfied that the funds had ultimately come from her. The NCA has sought help from a foreign partner agency to trace the original source of the funds.
* Two other SARs relate to a loan from George Cottrell to Tice. The loan was made shortly before Tice finalised a property purchase and made a party donation, and was not repaid until after those two transactions were completed, according to sources. George Cottrell is the son of Fiona Cottrell, and is a convicted fraudster, former deputy treasurer of Ukip and close associate of Farage.
* A fourth relates to the £5m gift from the Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne to Farage, which was first revealed by the Guardian in April.
Regulated individuals in some sectors, such as accountants, bankers, real estate agents and solicitors, have a legal obligation to submit SARs to the NCA if they have “knowledge or suspicion of money laundering”. There are rules designed to ensure that SARs are sufficiently detailed for the authorities to be able to investigate them.
SARs are not the same as crime reports or proof of wrongdoing, and are usually regarded as markers for law enforcement agencies to take a more rigorous look and potentially investigate.
The money behind Farage and Reform UK is under acute political and public scrutiny. He is being investigated by the parliamentary standards watchdog over the £5m gift, which Farage has variously described as being needed to pay for lifetime security, and also as a reward for “getting Brexit done”. On Tuesday, he resigned from his Clacton seat to trigger a byelection, in which he will stand. However, this move is likely to only pause, rather than close, the investigation and any potential reprimand.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, have led cross-party calls for Farage to “come clean” over his financial affairs.
The filing of the SARs raises questions about whether Electoral Commission rules and the MPs’ code of conduct are being adhered to by Reform, and whether the rules are fit for purpose if, as critics of Farage have suggested, Reform has blurred the boundaries of personal and political finance.
Farage may have resigned to fight a by-election to try and distract attention from these dealings, but they are not going away.
