Another stunning performance from ‘the real Foreign Secretary’ and Chagos sellout architect Jonathan Powell is revealed in The Guardian this afternoon. It has emerged Starmer’s National Security Advisor attended denuclearisation talks in Geneva in February between the Americans and Iranians. What did he have to offer?
Not much by the sounds of it: “Powell thought progress had been made in Geneva and that the deal proposed by Iran was “surprising”, according to sources.” Just days later the US began to bomb Iran…
Powell’s proximity to the talks will raise further questions about why Starmer took so long to act when war broke out. His own NSA was around the table, yet HMS Dragon is still not any further than Gibraltar…
Read the full 7563-word lecture by going to the bottom of this page. Here’s the summary for those afraid of falling asleep at the desk:
Brexit
Tax
Spending
She also admitted youth unemployment was “far too high” and the student loan system is “broken“. And then said fixing it wasn’t “front of the queue”…
Read the full speech below:
Continue reading “READ IN FULL: Rachel Reeves’ Brexit-Bashing Mais Lecture”
It’s all kicking off in Port Louis as Mauritius’s Deputy Prime Minister has announced he is intending to resign. Paul Berenger said: “My decision is made, but when I implement it, and if I do, I will communicate the details.” A full-blown political crisis is kicking off in Mauritius, thanks to Keir Starmer…
The Mauritius Parliament had been expected to resume its term today. At the top of the DPM’s list for why he is resigning? Local press reports: “given the worsening economic situation and international tensions, particularly the war in the Middle East, “this is not the time for the country not to have a full-time Minister of Finance.” As Guido has noted, the demise of the Chagos deal has blown a hole in the Mauritius budget…
The country’s government could now collapse, further complicating the status of the paused Chagos deal which was derailed by President Trump. If an election looms in Mauritius, the deal will go into a further pause – only Starmer could get this unlucky…
Rachel Reeves has just claimed in her Mais lecture she had to raise taxes in both her car-crash Budgets because not doing so would have led to “higher inflation, higher interest rates, higher borrowing… or collapsing public services“. Admitting these choices were “unpopular” with some, which is the understatement of the millennium…
Here is what the Office for Budget Responsibility said when Reeves hiked employers’ NI contributions in her first Budget:
“The OBR also expect that in the near-term the measure will add 0.2% to the level of the CPI as a result of firms passing on part of the cost of the measure to consumer prices.”
Not to mention the inflationary public sector pay rises…
There was a time when Reeves held up the OBR as the paragons of virtue. Then she got into government and obviously had second thoughts. Even before they accidentally leaked her entire Budget last year…
Confirming the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) plan for a ‘targeted’ vaccination programme for students who live in Kent University’s Canterbury campus accommodation. The programme “may expand further” depending on the UKHSA’s risk assessment…
In Henry Mance’s piece today for the FT, lunching with Nigel Farage:
“Splendido!” Farage says, when the drinks arrive; I suppose it’s a step to European reconciliation. We clink glasses, and he lights the first of two back-to-back Benson & Hedges. A few minutes later, we’re back downstairs. “Are you drinking? Good.” He orders a glass of Sauvignon blanc for each of us — not a bottle, “because it’s Lent” — followed by a bottle of claret, to have with our meal. They say Farage drinks less than he used to. They say a lot of things.”