I wonder how much worthwhile investment has been lost because of this. It’s not all HMT’s fault I suspect. How often it must have been burnt in the past, when a department has promised savings from eg a massive new IT system, which turns into a fiasco. bsky.app/profile/gile...

Giles Wilkes@gilesyb.bsky.social · 22h ago

"At key moments after 2010, ‘spend-to-save’ initiatives were described to us by a senior official as ‘completely non-negotiable’. The Treasury bias against ‘spend-to-save’ is so pervasive that we heard numerous examples of where departments and agencies self-select against well-evidenced proposals"

It’d be hard to ‘make immigration non-justiciable’ without breaching the ECnHR. But these comments do highlight that the ECnHR isn’t the main obstacle. They’d need to go much further than that. bsky.app/profile/sund...

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 3d ago

"Its a good question", says Yusuf. "Can it be done without leaving the ECHR? Possibly" - cf Italy, Spain, France, Denmark. He would take no chances, repeal all laws, "make immigration non-justiciable" + then 'deploy our resources'. [Removals to where remains unanswered] x.com/GBNEWS/statu...

Rounding the southeast tip of England.

One of the oddities of having a purity test for Net Zero is that she frames it as a difference of approach, rather than one of principle, even here going as far to defend her previous position as a supporter of NZ but ‘sounding a note of caution’. www.aol.com/articles/bad...

While there may be a way of tweaking or selling this policy differently, it looks unlikely any ‘pause’ can fundamentally change what’s needed to deal with the crisis short term, & risks worsening it. www.arguably.uk/p/britain-is...

Britain is in denial on the prisons crisis

Burnham’s decision to pause early releases is good politics but bad policy

arguably.uk

Good ideas here, especially on external shading. One thing we’ve done is put one of those reflective shade cloths usually used for cars over the flat roof kitchen roof lantern. Let’s light in so can be left up all summer.

Chris Foster@chrisfoster.bsky.social · last mo.

I just found this website yesterday which has lots of good advice on that. Struggling to keep our upstairs below 28 😐 www.heatwavetoolkit.com

What’s the current approach of government departments regarding X? AIUI, both DCMS & AGO had stopped posting there, shortly before the change of PM. The SoS for the former was reappointed. The AG has changed. Are both depts still off? Any indication others might follow?

Enjoying the Strangers & Brothers novels, which are superb on politics, but one caveat: sometimes CPS is a bit ‘off’ on character. Calvert’s Nazism in The Light & the Dark, Jago’s supposedly superior character over Crawford in The Masters, Eliot’s indulgence of Robinson in Homecomings.

Key read, since this looks likely to be the most significant policy development in the next couple of years, if these plans do go ahead. bsky.app/profile/samf...

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · last wk.

New post out "Burnham's defining project" Number 10 North isn't a gimmick, it's the start of first serious attempt to decentralise the state in England. I look at the five biggest challenges to getting it right and how best to manage them. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

Ridiculous situation. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... “When will Andy Burnham tackle the ‘cost of working’ crisis?”

Shades of Lawrence Fox, except that his longing for hard men was bound up with disappointment that they always led to soft men.

Agree on the early signs here, but perhaps more so than under KS: it looks like short term wins (the ‘cost of living government’) are going to be prioritised at the expense of long term reforms & infrastructure changes (possibly even with a view to an early election). bsky.app/profile/mart...

A sign of how politics has changed that a party would choose to call a general election on the basis of a 30% voting intention figure. bsky.app/profile/jame...

James Austin@jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 2w ago

The big Q here is what numbers are good enough. My suspicion is that you'd want: - Over 30% consistenly in polling - 5% plus ahead of reform - 'Left bloc' showing some signs of consolidating If the polling some something like: Lab: 30% Ref: 21% Con: 20% LD: 11% Green: 10% You surely go for it.

Why do drafters keep using this word? No one seems to know what it means. "It all depends on the context." So everyone needs to troop off to court to find out. Why not just say what you mean up front? I keep complaining about this & no one seems to paying any attention.

IMV a Lord Chancellor doesn't need to be a lawyer, nor an AG to be an especially eminent one. EG of the LCs this century, the lawyers haven't necessarily been better than the non-lawyers. What matters more is commitment to the importance of courts & the rule of law, competence, & influence.

Some predictions/briefings turned out to be inaccurate, but was this vibe about influence about right? The only card-carrying BL member is Mahmood, but staying as HS is significant. Liberals like Hermer are out. Policy positions sounding left on economics, right on culture. bsky.app/profile/publ...

Public Sector Lawyer@publicsectorlawyer.bsky.social · 3w ago

Was Blue Labour underestimated? Maurice Glasman presumably delighted by all this.

I really ought to stop making political predictions. Both have now been promoted to the Cabinet. bsky.app/profile/publ...

Public Sector Lawyer@publicsectorlawyer.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I do think there are some very competent politicians around (I've recently been impressed with Matt Pennycook & Hamish Falconer). But the work such people do doesn't get much publicity, & they often don't make it to the top tier.

The final 1970s rabbit is going to be the appointment of a minister for drought, at which point the heavens open & Burnham’s popularity goes through the roof.

Includes a cameo from Steven Barrett. bsky.app/profile/jame...

James Ball@jamesrball.com · 3w ago

"No normal political conference features the spectacle of a former UK prime minister proudly introducing a former spokeswoman for Andrew and Tristan Tate – brothers accused of orchestrating a global sex trafficking and grooming operation – onto its main stage, to polite applause."

The 29% strategy. conservativehome.com/2026/07/17/p...

Was Blue Labour underestimated? Maurice Glasman presumably delighted by all this.

The AG has now been admonished by the Court of Appeal. (Though query whether now this power ever can be entirely separated from politics.) www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u... bsky.app/profile/publ...

Public Sector Lawyer@publicsectorlawyer.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Gives the impression the decision has already been made, as though the AG’s role is to provide the legal rubber stamp on a political judgement. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This article captures the essence of the departing PM as well as anything I've seen. bsky.app/profile/dunc...

Duncan Robinson@duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 3w ago

in retrospect, just quite a weird politician www.economist.com/britain/2026...

To be properly Conservative it's necessary to renounce policies held by the party for decades. (Even Thatcher was an early supporter of tackling climate change & never threatened to leave the ECnHR.) And practically, is it wise to reduce the numbers of Tories in the Lords? bsky.app/profile/timb...

Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · 3w ago

Madness. Utter madness. Badenoch is quietly turning what used to be a broad church into an even narrower sect.

The way this is being repeatedly emphasised, as though it’s the most important detail of the whole awful business.

To be fair to Mr Tice, I've carefully combed through the Equality Act, & cannot find anything that protects very successful aristocratic families from discrimination.

Excellent post against the defeatism & cynicism on this issue which so often dominates discussion of it in the media. bsky.app/profile/joxl...

John Oxley@joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 4w ago

🚨NEW BLOGPOST🚨 Farage thinks that the support of the people of Clacton means his scandals don't matter. Many of his opponents mirror this thinking, arguing that his loyalists will still stick with him. I'm not fully convinced by this is true www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/some-thing...

The reason this is being investigated by the police not the Electoral Commission is that this is an offence for which the Commission's civil sanctions powers can't be used. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Police investigate Reform donations, the Times reports

The investigation is looking into donations made to Reform UK by the mother of the convicted fraudster George Cottrell, according to the Times.

bbc.co.uk