Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander sent a letter to the chairman of the Transport Committee to talk about buses manufactured by China. In it she wrote:
“It is important to reiterate the context I set out to the Committee. There are approximately 30,000 buses in England, of which about 8 per cent are electric. Of those 5,000 electric buses, just over 600 are manufactured by Yutong – representing about 2 per cent of buses operating in England.”
She’s right on the rough number of buses – can co-conspirators spot the maths flub. This is one of those percentage exam question examples you give to 12-year-olds…
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.”