An invite has gone to staff at the Care Quality Commission, which is responsible for regulating all health and social care services in England:
“When: Thursday, June 4, 2026, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM (UTC) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
Where: Room 1B, 2 Redman Place, Stratford Office and by MS Teams
Category: LGBT+
About this event:
Our quarterly members meeting takes place in person and via MS Teams. To receive an invitation please join the LGBT+ Network at the link above.”
Also coming up on Thursday 4th June from at 2 p.m. is a one hour Microsoft Teams meeting: “The LGBT+ Network are delighted to welcome Tina Wathern, Head of Education at the LGBT Foundation, for a discussion on Pride in Practice.” The LGBT Foundation is a Manchester-based charity which produces such work as a guide on gaining asylum in the UK…
A report last year found seven in ten community social care services either have no CQC rating or one that’s out of date. Wonder why…
Andy Burnham has hit back at Tony Blair in writing with a Times piece. His main arguments:
- Agrees with Blair on “the vital need for higher economic growth as the enabler of greater social justice,” that Labour should focus on “domestic issues, and fixing our own underlying problems, rather than on re-running divisive arguments about rejoining the European Union,” and that “the numbers of young people on benefits is too high.” U-turn alert…
- Attacks Blair on living standards analysis: “The fall in the living standards of millions, and the reality that life has got harder for most year on year since the financial crash in 2008, is, I believe, the gaping omission in his analysis.” Argues this has been “the single biggest driver of the turmoil in politics he describes and the cratering of support for traditional parties of right and left, here and around the world.”
- Attacks globalisation: parties “were too bound into a model of globalisation that led to the crash and, consequently, have since struggled to articulate a fresh approach.”
- Attacks deregulation: “The principal cause of the 2008 crash was a failure of regulation. So how can a new wave of deregulation plausibly be the answer to the problems we have experienced since?”
- Accuses deregulatory Blair of “the real ‘retro’ thinking… the kind of thinking that would doom us to repeat past mistakes and, if we’re not careful, prevent us from protecting children by failing to regulate social media, artificial intelligence and big tech.”
- Attacks New Labour: “The Labour government in which I was proud to serve did many great things. It did not, however, take us off the direction set by Thatcher.”
- Blames the housing crisis on “the failure to reform right-to-buy and fully restore the public housing stock” and the cost of living crisis on “acceptance of the deregulation and privatisation of essential services.”
- “This has given us 40 years of neoliberalism and the simple truth is this: it has not been kind to communities in Makerfield and those like them across the UK. Trickle-down economics did not in the end trickle down very much at all.”
- Lauds his mayoralty: Greater Manchester got “the highest annual average growth anywhere in the UK – 3.1 per cent” alongside “the biggest reduction in inner-city deprivation”
- “This has not come about by leaving things to the market but by being very interventionist and intentional about it.”
- Cites the Stockport regeneration scheme where “private investors walked away” post-pandemic and the GMCA stepped in with “patient public capital.”
- “You can’t just leave it to the market, as Tony’s essay seems to suggest. If you want higher growth in areas that don’t have it, you need strong public control and direction.”
- Makes some policy proposals:
- Bus re-regulation: fares cut from over £4 to a £2 cap, free travel for young people, no 9:30am restriction for older/disabled passengers
- Technical education given parity with academic routes, under devolved local control
- “A huge transfer of power, resources and personnel to combined and local authorities.”
- Reformed public procurement with “full social value weighting, to give local entities the best chance of winning contracts.”
- Home Office reform, with outsourced asylum accommodation in deprived areas criticised as “not the basis for a fair asylum system.”
Light…
Unite the Union are under scrutiny after new revelations that they are funding a political party in Jersey faced with a dubious record on Russia, Hamas and Israel. What a surprise…
Reform Jersey, which is also the largest and most successful political party on the channel island, is very close to Unite the Union. Unite are the party’s largest donor – providing 94% of its publicly declared donations at the last election, and a Unite delegate is constitutionally required to sit on Reform Jersey’s board. Union funds…
But new revelations are raising questions about Unite’s support for the party. Reform Jersey leader Mezec – who is also a Unite member – is a founder of the Jersey Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and regularly speaks at its marches and rallies. All rather odd for an island that positions itself as a safe haven…
A quick dive into the JPSC’s Facebook page shows that this is an organisation with a seriously twisted worldview. JPSC has shared posts stating that Hamas’s bombing Israel is “not only morally justified – it is an absolute necessity”. Bad times on Jersey…
Every month, we’ll publish the power rankings of all the leading lights in the party based on our readers’ responses. Click here to fill in the survey, and the results will be published at the end of the month. Dan Thomas and Malcolm Offord have been added to the roster. Here’s how last month 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…
The already-small number of charges issues for immigration offences dropped by a tenth in the year after Labour took power. Smash the gangs…
Immigration offences are defined by the Home Office as any of the following:
- Facilitation offences including: Assisting unlawful immigration to the UK (Section 25 Immigration Act 1971) and Helping asylum seekers to enter the UK (Section 25A Immigration Act 1971)
- All offences as set out in Section 24 Immigration Act 1971
- Deception, as set out in Section 24A Immigration Act 1971
- Possession of a false identity document etc, with improper intention, as set out in Section 4 Identity Documents Act 2010
- Possession of a false identity document etc, without reasonable excuse, as set out in Section 4 Identity Documents Act 2010
Guido’s FOI Unit has discovered that from July 2023 to June 2024 – the last year of Tory government – 667 individuals were charged for immigration offences. After Labour was elected, from July 2024 to June 2025 that figure dropped to 603. A 9.6% reduction…
The National Crime Agency is currently celebrating a rise in arrests it has made in the year to April 2026: “59 people were convicted of organised immigration crime (OIC) offences in UK courts as a result of NCA investigations.” Splash in the pan…
In April the government inked a new £662 million deal with the French to slow down small boat crossings. Almost a thousand migrants crossed the Channel over the bank holiday weekend. Out of control…
A new report from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) shows the UK’s electricity system costs are on track to more than double by 2030. The equivalent of adding £700 to the average household bill even if – and it’s a big if – gas prices remain static…
According to the IEA, total subsidies and grid integration costs for renewables will soar from £19.8 billion in 2024/25 to a whopping £40.1 billion in 2030/31 on the government’s current plans.
David Turver, energy expert and author of the IEA’s ‘The Cost of Net Zero’, said:
“The UK already has the most expensive industrial electricity in the developed world, and official forecasts show it is going to get significantly worse. The idea that building more wind and solar will bring bills down is just wrong. Grid integration costs alone are set to rise by £17 billion by 2030, dwarfing any savings from lower gas prices.
“The opposition proposals to scrap AR7, end the Renewables Obligation and abolish carbon taxes are welcome, but they do not go nearly far enough. Even if every one of those pledges were delivered in full, electricity system costs would still be £8.2 billion above today’s levels by 2030…”
Even Blair is pushing against Labour’s Net Zero dogma. The odds of Miliband listening are next to nothing…
Batting away critical points from Nick Robinson on the Today Programme, Tony Blair said:
“I always used to say the greatest source of election-losing advice was the Guardian.”
