Spare a thought for energy minister Michael Shanks this morning, who’s had an tricky start to the year. During energy questions in the Commons, he was asked by Tory MP Harriet Cross what the price of oil and gas is today. He couldn’t answer…
After some waffling, Cross eventually put Shanks out of his misery, informing the House that oil is at $62 a barrel and gas at 72p a therm. That’s around a third lower than what the government itself deems “windfall” prices, despite Labour hammering the industry with punitive windfall taxes. Chin up, Shanks. Maybe 2027 will be your year…
Speaking at an IPPR think tank event in London, the Health Secretary compared striking junior doctors to mutinous sailors.
“I feel like we’ve turned the ship, the boat’s going in the right direction, except some of the crew are trying to row in one direction while the rest of us are going in the other. You can’t make progress that way. We are seeing an improving NHS, and we’ve seen improvement despite resident doctors’ strikes, but the fact is, performance would have been better and there would have been more money to invest in staff and services if the BMA hadn’t been undertaking the strike action.”