Keir Starmer today unveiled his brand spanking new small boats solution. Which just happens to be the same as government policy launched last year…
At the same time Michael Fabricant reminisced about his now ex-colleague Natalie Elphicke on Sky:
“I was at a Christmas do with her and she was telling me that she thinks the Royal Navy if necessary should open fire on the French Navy if they don’t accept our pushing boats back into French territorial waters and I was saying to her ‘well hang on these boats are pretty unstable if you nudge them people will get drowned’… I actually remember saying to her: ‘What, do you want, a war with France then?’ and she shrugged her shoulders.”
Guido wonders what Natalie’s Labour mates will make of that one. It’s such a broad church that its personnel supports both opening borders and opening fire…
One month ago the UK was confirmed as the world’s fourth largest exporter. Exports to the EU are stable and those to non-EU countries are proliferating. Not that Labour wants to hear it…
The International Monetary Fund predicts that the UK will grow by 8.3% by 2029, higher than France, Germany, Japan, and Italy. The UK private sector is miles more confident of a pick up than its European partners at the same time…
When adjusting for population growth, the UK is still predicted to grow more than any European country in the G7. From 2010 to 2023, UK growth outperformed every one. 14 years of Tory rule…
Entries in the comments…
Newly re-elected London mayor Sadiq Khan has scored himself a £6,000 pay rise to £160,976. Almost quadruple the average London salary and well above the Prime Minister’s…
Khan isn’t the only one doing well – his close aides’ pay packets are seeing a bumper hike. The majority of GLA staff have been given a standard 4.5% pay rise – though that just won’t do for Khan’s cronies. Disastrous “Night Czar” Amy Lamé has trousered a 13.5% hike up from £117,000 to a whopping £132,846. Meanwhile, the latest data shows that pubs and clubs continue to close at a startling rate, with 3,011 nighttime businesses shuttering up since the pandemic. That means Lamé is now paid £44 for every business that has shut down so far…
Raver Susan Hall tells Guido in response: “Over 1000 pubs and clubs have closed in London in the last three years. These venues desperately need the Mayor’s support and a Night Czar who will actually do something to help London’s nightlife thrive.” LameLondon is in full effect…
The Tory whips have decided it’s time up for Reform defector Lee Anderson on the Home Affairs Select Committee. Anderson is now getting kicked off by motion, as is the government’s prerogative, to be imminently replaced. Lee’s direct questioning has become a staple of otherwise dull Home Affairs committee meetings. No doubt problematic now he’s not batting for their side…
Anderson says:
“I would’ve liked to have stayed on the committee, but with the Home Office once again due to be scrutinised before it I’m probably the last person they want asking questions in the run up to an election.”
Other committee members acknowledge that Lee is a top performer and say “it’s sad to see him go“. End of an era…
It’s got to be a tough week for someone who finds it “really hard losing cases”. The Good Law Project and Stonewall’s two-year campaign against the Equality and Human Rights Commission has ended in dismal failure. The EHRC in 2022 called for more “detailed consideration” from the SNP when it attempted to make it drastically easier to legally switch genders, something that Jolyon’s outfit insisted made it a “cheerleader for the Government rather than an independent monitor.” The Good Try Project went about doing its magic, as always…
Stonewall and the GLP forced a review of the EHRC’s status by the UN-run Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) to try to remove its “A rating”, which allows it to formally interact with the UN Human Rights Council and its committees on human rights. Now the review is complete and the EHRC has been confirmed again as a “high-performing, independent National Human Rights Institutions”. Now that’s done the Good Law Project can go back to funding the government in endless legal costs…
