The Guardian’s HQ is reportedly infested with an army of bed bugs, with pest controllers called in this afternoon to exterminate the critters. An earlier attempt to deep clean the premises failed…
Staff have been encouraged to work from home in the meantime if they’d rather not put up with the bugs. An internal email concedes “we appreciate this might be unsettling for some staff”, which does suggest there are at least some Guardian hacks who have no problem working in an office stuffed with parasites. Usually just reading the Guardian is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl…
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.”