Eclipsing Badenoch. Soon Farage could be the favourite to be the next PM

Eclipsing Badenoch. Soon Farage could be the favourite to be the next PM

It is quite something that a party with a mere five MPs and their leader soon could be favourite to be the next Prime Minister. My view is Farage is a lay in this market because if it looks like Labour are going to be eclipsed by Reform (and potentially the Tories) then Labour will look at replacing Starmer before the next election (or Starmer voluntarily stands down.) So the value might be with the likes of Wes Streeting and…

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Like Thatcher in her first term Starmer finds himself third in the polls

Like Thatcher in her first term Starmer finds himself third in the polls

The one thing I find amusing is that people on social media and elsewhere are stridently predicting the outcome of the next general election some four and a half years away. Governments that become rather unpopular in the early part of the parliament can go on and win the general election, as I allude to in the headline Thatcher’s first term saw her party slip to third place in the polls in her first term then won a landslide at…

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If the referendum were rerun today there would be a very different result

If the referendum were rerun today there would be a very different result

Like the Brexit referendum there’s a plethora of evidence that voters regret how they voted in the AV referendum. Like Brexit I expect the gap to get wider as the reality of decision confronts voters. Winning a majority of 174 on a vote share of 33.7%, FPTP seems iniquitous. It isn’t out of the realms of the possibility that Labour wins an even bigger majority at the next election with a lower share of the vore whilst the Tories and…

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Starmer achieves in 5 months what it took the Tories 14 years

Starmer achieves in 5 months what it took the Tories 14 years

Prior to the general election I said many times one of the reasons I expected the Tories to get absolutely shellacked was their handling of the cost of living crisis. Labour have four and a half years to turn things around, if they do not then I would expect them to get similarly shellacked. TSE

The Planning Problem

The Planning Problem

Simple problem, difficult answer We haven’t been building enough. Although it’s not the only culprit behind outrageous house prices, it’s the most conspicuous one. Sort out house prices, and a lot of other things go some way to sorting themselves out.We also have an issue with failing infrastructure and apparent inability to build more without astonishing cost and time and incredible piles of paperwork. These are related in one single problem: planning is a broken process. It’s a simple problem…

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Losing your marbles

Losing your marbles

As the old joke goes the only reason the Pyramids are still in Egypt is that they were too heavy for the British to steal. Quite rightly Brits don’t want to handle stolen goods. TSE