A pro-liberty campaigner and one of the last great smokers. He campaigned against anti-smoking regulations over his lifetime and said in 2005:
“You cannot have a smoke free bohemia. Without a bohemia you pay a heavy price… Picasso smoked until he was about 98 and so did Matisse…
I smoke for my mental health, so do most people actually. If they are not on it what replaces it? Antidepressants. I’d prefer a cigarette.”
He was still fighting for individuals’ rights last year (and smoking). Requiescat in pace…
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”