Newsnight’s Victoria Derbyshire spoke with Andy Burnham:
This is despite Burnham sending a press release out to papers this morning about his plans to cut business rates by 20% in government. Pick and choose – this is the attitude to the campaign which is derided by those who think Burnham will crash and burn upon impact with political reality…
Just for fun, Burnham also couldn’t name the fiscal rules:
Strap in…
Guido’s Adam Cherry has trekked up to Makerfield ahead of the by-election. The full video is coming next week. Subscribe to Guido’s YouTube channel to be the first to see it…
CCHQ has instructed personnel not to attack Burnham too heavily or campaign hard in Makerfield. Leaving that to Reform…
Co-conspirators may have noticed that the Tories – equipped with potent attack capabilities – have gone a little light-touch on the Manchester mayor. Guido hears personal advisers to shadow ministers have been instructed to hold back full fire on him and the by-election for now. Separately Guido has reported that CRD, the research and attack unit in the central party, is holding fire on Burnham for the moment…
The party is keen to deny Reform a big victory. Restore’s Rupert Lowe – who is polling significantly in Makerfield – has been filmed referring to his “agreement” with the Conservatives in the past and Tory sources point out that Restore is not standing in the Tory target Aberdeen South. Helping Burnham in is a double-edged sword…
UPDATE: The Tories insist in their defence that they are going at Burnham through the papers and are sending Shadow Cabinet ministers to Makerfield.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones has blamed Britain’s youth unemployment problem on AI and claimed that the technology could destroy the economy in the future. Did he get that comms strategy from his friend Peter Mandelson?
Speaking at the CBI Business Members dinner last night, Jones described himself as the “Chief Operating Officer in government,” adding: “I have 28 different businesses with 28 different bosses.” He complained that this was difficult…
Speaking about the “tragedy” of over one million young people not in education, training, or work, Jones said technology companies need to do more than automate:
“I reflect just anecdotally from my own experience as a trainee solicitor, most of the work I did as a training solicitor I am convinced can be done much better by AI now than I did when I was starting – but my law firm invested in me because of my potential in the future… if those jobs don’t exist in the same number for the number of young people we have coming through the system, we don’t have an unemployment problem, but we have a future capacity problem, because young people are not getting those opportunities to learn and to develop a little understanding.”
Jones did not appear to see the irony of his government dramatically raising the cost of employing young people. He said companies would have to change their practices:
“One of my big questions for technology companies… is on the one hand, I can see the benefits of automating simpler tasks, reducing costs, increasing profit volumes, improving outcomes to your customers, but how do we, in those circumstances, make sure that we’re still giving human beings the opportunity to set themselves up in the form of the future, because if we get that wrong, my worry is that you see wealth coming through technology more than it comes through workers in the labour market, and we will not be able to afford to pay out of work benefits if we don’t have enough people to work paying taxes.
Now that’s not a problem right now, but I can see how it can become a problem in the decade ahead, and as we’re developing these technologies and implementing them. We have to do more together to make sure that we understand public policy opportunities and risks, and work together to make sure that we’re developing proper answers now and not having to deal with the crisis that they’re involved in the years ahead.”
Jones crystallised the concern of leftist policymakers that AI will become too valuable while also claiming that with additional investment from companies, humans have untapped value. Market understanding is thin here…
In his comments he added: “The thing that frustrates me and the public is when we announce that we’re doing something and then it doesn’t happen.” It’s probably better that way…
Jones also hit out at Wes Streeting and the growing Labour campaign to rejoin the EU: “We shouldn’t take the lazy answer to say, well, we should just be joining the EU… because I do actually think we would lose some competitive advantage if we did so. So where it’s in our interest to align, we should do so, that’s what the government is doing, but we should also be clear about where it’s in our interest not to apply and reserve the right to do that, and I think you’ve got to get this interval right between understanding where you are and balancing what you would sell out, what your strengths are in economy, including on research, university expertise, labour market expertise, and also our regulatory advantage.” Good luck convincing Andy…
At the lobby briefing of political journalists Starmer’s spokesman said the government ‘rejects’ a call from the US State Department last night to bring an end to two-tier policing. Special relationship latest…
Last night Marco Rubio’s department issued the following statement:
“Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline. They must be rejected across the West. The United States sends our condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom at this troubling time.”
Starmer’s spokesman said: “Of course recognising that it has been a case that did cause huge public concern … we do reject any suggestion of two-tier policing across the United Kingdom… we don’t recognise the characterisation of two-tier policing.” Stick the blinders on and keep going…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”