Vocal Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash has deleted an X post which read:
“Public sector workers use their income to pay FOR the private sector. The state is one of the biggest procurers of the private sector. It wouldn’t exist without tax payers. People creating the divide between public and private genuinely don’t understand how an economy works.”
He has kept another up in which he attacks Richard Tice for pointing out the public sector is bloated: “The ‘bloated public sector’ – hear that all you teachers, nurses and care workers.” Remember when Reeves tried to teach Labour MPs basic economics…
A message landed on editors’ desks this week from the press regulator IPSO:
“PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL; NOT FOR PUBLICATION
IPSO has today been contacted by a representative acting on behalf of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Editors will be aware that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are relocating to the UK, along with their two young children. It is the Duke and Duchess’ wish that their children are able to grow up and enjoy their schooling and childhood safely and free of unnecessary intrusion and scrutiny.
The family are aware that news outlets will wish to cover their return. However, they have significant privacy and security concerns regarding the potential reporting of the family’s residence and the school to be attended by the children.
They therefore request that editors do not publish any information identifying the location of their home, or that could lead members of the public to identify the home, given the likelihood that this would lead to intrusion into their children’s privacy and potentially safety. For the same reason, they ask that the children’s school is not identified.”
They probably want to brief the name of the schools themselves. This is after the ‘world exclusive’ detailing their triumphant return to Britain landed in two national newspapers at the same time. Busy work from the publicists…
Commentators on X have pointed out that by staying away from the UK for six years the pair have secured Capital Gains Tax exemptions. Will be useful for paying those legal costs…
New figures from the Office for National Statistics show that total UK debt is at £2.985 trillion. A hair’s breadth of the £3 trillion mark…
Borrowing was higher than OBR forecasts at £1.8 billion in July, up £0.7 billion on the same month last year. Self-assessed income tax was collected last month and total receipts reached £17.1 billion, £1.7 billion higher than last year. The Treasury is still borrowing above forecasts…
John Healey said:
“Fiscal discipline is the bedrock of our UK economic stability and national security which is why we are committed to meeting our fiscal rules, with a buffer against global uncertainties.
We are cutting the deficit faster than any other G7 economy, while giving people a bit of breathing space with cost of living pressures and focusing support to get young people into work.”
Mel Stride has released a video on what it means for debt to reach £3 trillion and how much the UK is spending on servicing its debt. Borrowing is taxation deferred…
The Press Recognition Panel, the state body set up to ‘oversee regulation of the press’ after the Leveson Inquiry and endorse regulators (of which there is only one), is using Jason Arday’s death to push for the state to regulate the press more tightly. In come the campaigns…
The PRP is a state body established under Royal Charter, contrary to the historic principle that the press is not licensed. It would be massively empowered under a Leveson 2 media clampdown but has so far only approved Fleet Street-hating Impress as a state-backed regulator because most of the press has signed up to their own one, Ipso. Not enough for the liberty-haters…
In a statement on the Arday affair:
“Government should now join up the media accountability landscape and create meaningful incentives for publishers to participate in independently assessed regulation. That does not mean giving ministers any role in deciding what the press can publish or how complaints are handled. Regulation would remain independent of Government and the press industry, as the Royal Charter requires.
The proposed trusted-news prominence regime offers an immediate opportunity. Access to prominence and other public, commercial or platform-based benefits should be linked to participation in the Recognition System through an Approved Regulator, with the same principle applied across legislation affecting news publishers.”
‘Incentives’ is choice language. The stick and stick approach…
Amnesty, the ultimate activist charity, has also backed state regulation. As the dullard left loves to say: When someone tells who they are – believe them…
Jolyon’s Good Law Project is calling for an inquiry and stringent action, while the Greens and Zack Polanski are claiming billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to own media companies. A sorry state of affairs…
Click here to fill in the survey, and the results will be published at the end of the month. Here’s how the last result played out…
We’re offering £10 off your Guido membership once you complete it. If you’re not a Guido member yet, that’s a whole month as a Co-Conspirator for free. You’ll get instant access to all our exclusive content, including Labour Wars and The Right Angle…
New YouGov data shows that 56% of Londoners don’t want Sir Sadiq / Lord Khan to stand for a fourth mayoral term. Including almost a third who voted for him in 2024…
Most Londoners also think the capital is a worse place to live than it was a decade ago, even if Khan himself thinks saying so is some kind of right wing conspiracy. He still hasn’t confirmed whether he’ll stand again. David Lammy watches from the shadows, waiting…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”