Starmer at the G7:
“Very many times on my political journey, people have said to me, ‘It’s not possible’. They said it’s not possible to turn the Labour Party around. It’s not possible to win an election. It’s not possible, if you do win an election, to invest in your public services and stabilise the economy. Wrong every time.”
Inflation is up, the economy contracted in April, youth unemployment is through the roof, and the welfare budget is a farce. That’s a stable economy apparently. He also claimed the UK will play its “full part” in getting the Strait of Hormuz open. With what navy?
Trust in traditional news outlets has fallen to a record low, according to a closely-watched survey. No surprise there…
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report, based on an online survey of nearly 100,000 people across 48 markets. Trust in news has fallen to 37% globally, the lowest since the Institute began measuring it in 2015, down three points year on year. UK trust dropped five points to 30% and US trust sits at 25%…
For the first time, social media and video networks (54%) have overtaken news organisations’ websites and apps (51%) as the single most widely used way of accessing news globally. Adding AI chatbots brings the total to 56% – the shift is happening across all age groups. Labour will extend the ban to everyone, then…
Use of TV news has fallen 13 points and news websites 12 points since 2020. The UK saw no increase in AI chatbot use for news. Audiences are also dissatisfied with coverage of major running stories. Significantly more people – by eleven points – think the media covers immigration badly rather than well. Media business is technology business…
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“Make me Chancellor, Andy”…
Wes’ main points:
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has called for the Dartmoor ponies to be saved from a mass cull at the hands of civil servants. Is it silly season already?
Unaccountable quango Natural England says that livestock grazing on the moor have to be cut by 75% to protect ‘biodiversity.’ Farmers will not be culling their own livestock…
The Dartmoor ponies – semi-wild today – have been present in the area since 3500 BC until coming against Natural England. Nine in ten of them would have to be culled according to the quango’s demands. The ponies also provide crucial grazing and combat invasive species of flora…
Natural England says it’s up to the landowners to carry out its arbitrary demands. Badenoch said this morning:
“This is total madness from another unaccountable quango. The government must overrule Natural England and stop it immediately.
Keir Starmer is on his way to making his last acts in office the shameful underfunding of our military and the mass slaughter of Dartmoor ponies.”
Cull the quangos…
The latest from YouGov:
| Reform | 24% ▼1 | |
| Conservatives | 19% = | |
| Labour | 19% = | |
| Greens | 15% ▲1 | |
| LibDems | 13% ▲1 |
The Tories and Labour are now neck and neck on 19%…
Sam Coates also has fresh polling showing Burnham is still the only Labour leadership contender the public think would make a better Prime Minister than Starmer, with a net score of +11 (29% think he’d be better, 18% think he’d be even worse). Every rival is underwater, with Wes Streeting on an abysmal -18. Team Burnham has briefed the FT this morning that they’ll at least give Starmer the “space” to resign after Friday. They think around 72 hours will be enough for him to surrender…
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked John Healey: “Just finally, I mean Andy Burnham has been very clear he wants Britain back in the European Union in his lifetime. Do you?”
The Chancellor replied: “I’m older than Andy Burnham. I don’t expect to see that.”