NHS: "bonfire" of targets shows shocking lack of ambition for patients Over 500 infrastructure incidents at delayed hospitals last year which now are "hanging by a thread" Councils paying £24,000 more a year per pensioner in nursing costs as Lib Dems call on govt to reverse "foolish" NICs hike Reeves on Kuenssberg: Chancellor's approach to growth "does not survive contact with reality" Badenoch on Kuenssberg: "Bungling Badenoch" still has no idea how angry people are at the damage the Conservatives did Scottish Conservative leader urged to explain whether he believes triple lock should be means tested Almost 1 in 5 ...
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: Welcome to the 145th edition of The Week in Polls (TWIP) which dives into the polling details behind a definitive looking headline from The Times. Will we find that the poll results back up the headline, or not? Find out more by reading this edition of The Week in Polls here, and you can sign up below to receive future editions direct to your email inbox:
"Regulation is one of those words used by politicians that is nearly always bad in the abstract and good in the specific. They rail against bureaucracy, red tape and pettifogging rules that get in the way of innovation and efficiency. But the moment something bad happens, they immediately accept that more regulation is the only way to avoid a recurrence."Sam Freedman explains why governments struggle to turn anti-regulation rhetoric into an agenda for the real world. Peter Jukes says Russia'a information warfare primed the world for Trump and Musk: "There has been a decade-long war against 'one person, one vote', ...
Anne Briggs is one of the lost legends of the British folk revival of the Sixties. Orphaned as a young child, she came from Toton in Nottinghamshire - then home to a huge railway depot. A feature in Uncut last year described how she was discovered: Her aunt and uncle felt she might be the first person in her family to make it to university, but the arrival of the Centre 42 festival in Nottingham in the summer of 1962 was to change everyone's plans. A trade union-sponsored travelling event aimed at decentralising art from London, it hinged on the ...
A provocative title? Of course there is much to offend us in President Trump's pronouncements, along with the character and antics of his various nominations to Government posts. But if we previously assumed that much of what he said was bluster, we now have to face the reality that he means what he says, and consider what the outcomes might be. In particular, what if he succeeds? This is not a simple question. To start with - what does "success" look like? We often condense that into simple numbers - GDP growth, inflation, stock market indices and unemployment figures. It ...
The end of another week at... No, it's not a "typo". It's a payoff from something in Monday's entry. Remember when Lord Bonkers visited the Elves of Rockingham Forest's 'Santa's Christmas Wonderland' and took a turn in the Santa costume to give Meadowcroft a break and then the Revd Hughes turned up? You've "not read it"? But I put the links to the earlier events that week at the end of each entry! If you can't be arsed to click on those then you can hardly expect to get full enjoyment out of such carefully crafted satire, can you? I'll ...
United States A stroke of the pen is not enough to end America's birth right citizenship laws. Donald Trump has so many more political and legal mountains to climb before his presidential decree can take effect. First there is the law. Already 24 Democratic states have launched lawsuits opposing Trump's sudden end to birth right citizenship. They are on firm ground. The Fourteenth Amendment of the US constitution says: "All persons born...in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." Trump claims that birth right citizenship has never challenged in the courts. That ...
With thanks to SJ Bogue and Dundee Memories, the wash-house and washing lines at the back of Annfield Row back in 1973.
The Observer reports that Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to forge closer economic links with Europe five years on from Brexit, as a major new poll shows voters clearly favour prioritising more trade with the EU over the US. The paper says that an MRP survey of almost 15,000 people by YouGov for the Best for Britain thinktank shows more people in every constituency in England, Scotland and Wales back closer arrangements with the EU rather than more transatlantic trade with Washington. They add that even in Nigel Farage's seat of Clacton, more people think the UK is better ...
