Burnham’s Ten Year Plan: a Poundland in every postcode? Politics You may barely be over the excitement of the Budget, but brace yourselves: Andy Burnham’s Ten Year Plan for Britain is coming into view. Expect a ban on Smoky Bacon flavour crisps and a state-run Poundland in every postcode. The PM’s ‘Brexit reset’ will see the UK sign up to all the latest EU rules [...]
Confusion and delay still at heart of Labour’s China strategy Politics We don’t have long to wait before Andy Burnham reveals his Ten-Year Plan. Early reports suggest it will be broken into three themes: growing up, getting on and growing old. I wish I was making that up, but it seems the PM really is putting the finishing touches to a ‘cradle to the grave’ strategy [...]
‘What breathing space?’ Top economist and Labour MP debate the Budget Video Moments after John Healey sat down in the Commons, the City AM studio was filling up with guests to chew over what we’d just heard. Our columnist Helen Thomas, aka Blonde Money, joined Editor Christian May and Comment Editor Alys Denby to discuss the economic context and political impact, before it fell to Labour’s Callum [...]
A breathing space Budget? This is asphyxiation October 29, 2026 If there were treats in John Healey’s pre-Halloween Budget they were hidden in a gloopy soup of tricks. Forget the talk about a low-key, ‘do no harm’ fiscal event; the Chancellor has delivered a mess of new interventions, subsidies, tax rises, quangos and complications against a backdrop of truly terrifying economic forecasts. Let’s start with [...]
Budget 2026: Healey carves out political breathing space for Andy Burnham October 28, 2026 If John Healey’s looking for a political narrative to frame his Budget, perhaps he could borrow from AI behemoth Anthropic. The Claude-maker’s extraordinary IPO prospectus insists that for all the risks and uncertainty surrounding the technology and economics of AI, their approach will be “bold but sane.” In fact, the full quote is that “in [...]
Our national debt is a crisis but at least we got a good dance track out of it October 22, 2026 Monday 24 November 2008, and MPs are gripped by one of the most consequential parliamentary debates of the past 30 years. As Chancellor, the late Alistair Darling had just told the House that his pre-Budget statement was being “made against a background of economic uncertainty not seen for generations” and that they had gathered in [...]
Why a ‘do no harm’ Budget isn’t good enough October 21, 2026 Labour market statistics can be pretty dry. Inactivity rates, nominal regular earnings growth, payroll numbers and claimant counts tend not, at first glance, to fire up the imagination. The data dumps are hoovered up by economists and analysts, not least as a guide to future Bank of England interest rate decisions or as a barometer [...]
When will Burnham bring his whole self to work? October 20, 2026 There have been relatively few Budget leaks ahead of next week’s fiscal event but the little we have been able to discern, while still technically in the realms of speculation, has been depressing. The latest suggestion – that people handing over the reins of a family business to the next generation could be hit with [...]
‘Nothing can stop it’ – The state expands like the horror film Blob October 15, 2026 The 1958 classic horror film The Blob scored mixed reviews on its release, with critics lamenting the poor acting and weak dialogue. Posters for the movie warned that the alien blob “devours everything in its path” and “nothing can stop it” – which is why, half a century later, Michael Gove resurrected and popularised the [...]
The urgent case for massive welfare reform is now impossible to ignore October 14, 2026 By accident or design, Britain is facing a moment of reckoning when it comes to welfare spending. The issue serves as a major fault line in Westminster, with the Tories pledging to slash the benefits bill while Andy Burnham vows there will be “no crude cuts” to the hundreds of billions of pounds spent across [...]
