Monday - Looking ahead at the week to come

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Wednesday - Checking in

Diane and I will have a 20 minute chat about how the week is going, occasionally featuring interviews and more.

Friday - Reflecting (or a bit whimsical)

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Saturday - Your Voice

A podcast in which Diane and I will run through the most popular posts of the week from Instagram and answer listeners questions

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Dear lovely people,

We’re shaking things up a little here at SP HQ.

I’ve written this email, in various formats, on a Friday for a decade. We’ve been doing our podcast for four years or so. We’ve never really reflected on it.

The assumption that you, lovely reader, want to read through a long email on a Friday and then also listen to a long podcast the same day may be a little wide of the mark.

We’re a little bit Vinnie Jones in our approach. Big and tough.

So, it’s all change. We’re doing smaller, more agile bits through the week. Your companion as we navigate our way through each set of seven days.

Every Monday (I may take a break when Parliament isn’t sitting, but we’ll see) I will send an email to paid subscribers. It’s going to be a look at what’s coming up in Parliament, with a specific focus on something particularly interesting. There will be an audio version of that, which will be available as a podcast for Patreons only.

You can sign up for that here…

Subscribe now

I am sorry to report that you might have to wrestle your way through Tuesday without us. There is always the methadone of our socials to keep you going.

Wednesday is something new. Diane and I will record a new ‘checking in’ podcast. I don’t think we’ll call it that, but we’ll see. It’s going to see what’s been happening. We’ll record after PMQs, so that might feature. It’ll be about 20 mins, so might suit your commute home. It’s not designed for you to have on for your special cuddles, but you do you.

A quiet Thursday, I think.

Friday is, well, this! This email will continue to land in your inbox every week. This little letter bit and a main article. I’ll continue to read it to you should you wish to do it that way. That audio will also go out as a mini podcast episode.

Finally, Saturday sees Diane return as our podcast host and we’ll look back at the week we’ve had. We’ll look at what made the top three posts on our socials, examine why they had the impact they did and take a look at the context. We’ll also answer listeners questions.

On Sundays I shall be cooking roast dinners and watching the football. Alas, you are not invited to this.

And that is that. Short and sweet. Rounded and useful. The Babybel of political chat.

(Are Babybel sweet? Or useful? I’m not sure they are. A terrible metaphor, really, but what else is short and sweet and rounded and useful? Chocolate coins? Babies? Ah! Buzzball cocktails. Phew! I got there in the end. We’re the Buzzball cocktails of politics chat.)

Peace and love,

Tatton x

AP Photo/Kin Cheung

How can you just walk away from me
When all I can do is watch you leave?
'Cause we've shared the laughter and the pain
And even shared the tears

Phil Collins

Please note: This is not an endorsement of the music of Phil Collins. I do not recommend that you listen to Phil Collins. Simple Politics takes no responsibility for any negative effects of listening to Phil Collins.

The shrinking towel

I love a towel, me. You are all wet, then, along comes a towel and you use it and then you’re all dry. Spot on. Well done that tool.

I especially like BIIIIIIGGGGG towels. Dry all over. Covering enough of you that you can wander around the place. You can even, maybe, go downstairs and open a cold drink. Heck, you can clean the fridge while you’re there.

Last week, I was on holiday and the towels were not what I’d wanted. They were small and thin. They demanded strategic choices. You had to choose which part of you to cover.

If I were to dry my hair, I had to be careful not to be too near the window in case sensitive eyes caught a glimpse of something nobody wants to see.

The Reform towel is shrinking. It used to be big and covered pretty much everything. Sure, you might get a little bit of ankle, maybe a shoulder poking out, but it covered a lot.

Those were the glory days, the halcyon days. When Nigel Farage took over as leader in 2024, they won 4.1 million votes, the third most of any party and five MPs to sit in the Commons.

This, according to Farage, was the bridgehead for the next election. That’s a specific military term that describes an invasion. You get a few people over and they pave the way for the army.

The next year, they won the local elections in England with 677 seats (Labour and Conservatives lost 861 between them). They got Andrea Jenkyns and Luke Campbell elected as mayors in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

Since their formation, Labour have always been the party of the worker. Now, it feels like Reform has taken that mantle - working class people are more likely to vote Reform and Labour is the preserve of the middle class. Maybe.

All of which meant that last year’s Reform Conference was a massive party. Elected representative after elected representative storming onto the stage at the NEC in Birmingham. There were many, many fireworks.

The Reform Conference isn’t like other people’s conferences. It is a show, you take your seat and you are entertained. The headline act is, obviously, Nigel Farage, but along the way you hear from the MPs, you hear from Zia Yusuf, you hear from your favourite Talk TV and GB News presenters.

They say they’re different. They refer to the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour as the ‘uni-party’. They are the alternative. They are the anti-establishment movement that’s sweeping the country.

I was sat at home, watching the entirety of both days. It was incredible. It was like nothing I’d ever seen. People half forgotten popped up - Lembit Öpik is a Reform man now. The pazzazz. The lights. The ‘Reform’ football shirts. The absolute swagger. Andrea Jenkyns literally arrived on stage singing.

In 2026, their local election slogan was ‘Vote Reform. Get Starmer out.’ I must admit that felt quite punchy at the time. A little melodramatic, perhaps.

What happened? In England Reform won 1,454 seats, Labour lost 1,498 seats they had previously held. Keir Starmer resigned.

I would take a bet that you can name more senior Reform people than you can either Conservative or Lib Dem.

Surely today’s conference will have even more swagger! The theme is their plans for the ‘first 100 days’ in office. Farage says he’ll call a state of emergency on his first day as PM.

There will be fireworks and bombast. It will be quite the watch, but it hides a reality. Andrea Jenkyns is nowhere to be seen on the main stage, or indeed in fringe events. Nobody is going to come out singing.

The news this morning didn’t focus on Reform’s policies or look forward to the fireworks. No, the focus was on what the focus has been on for months now: money.

Channel Four shared footage of Farage and an aide discussing taking money that they weren’t allowed to take. Nobody is surprised because Reform’s money always has the whiff of corruption.

That £5m, crypto donations (which are in the process of being outlawed), all of it.

The core Reform voter doesn’t care about this at all. That the party has money and support matters. The uni-party can sneer at them, but that’s what the uni-party do.

Those core voters adore Nigel Farage and have stuck with him for years, from UKIP to the Brexit party to Reform. He’s their man and will always be their man.

Core voters do not a majority make. Reform need to appeal to a much wider audience.

Right now, Burnham’s Labour Party have taken over in the polls. Conservative support has stabilised and is growing. Reform are losing support to the uni-party.

There is also Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, who sit happily to the right of Reform and are eating into their support.

The towel that used to cover everything has shrunk. Do they pull one way to win back the moderates who have slunk back to the uni-party? Does that reveal too much below, allowing for a punch in the unmentionables? Do they keep the towel where it is, accepting their face and knees remain wet?

They will spend today and tomorrow telling their supporters in Birmingham that they can have it all. Swat away Restore, triumphantly draw back waverers and go on to win the next General Election.

What will follow is strategic decisions on just where to put that towel.

This section has moved to the premium Monday email.

Sign up now to get a detailed look at next week, including a deep dive into the Health Bill and it’s suggested amendments.

I know I would say this, but they are pretty interesting.

Sorry for all the ‘subscribe’ links in this email - it’s just for launch, I promise.

Be well x

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Click the button and you’ll find my voice reading you this email.

That’s fun.

Dear lovely people,

I’m on holiday. An all inclusive in Marbella with the kids, it’s really lovely. While I write to you, lovely reader, the kids are running around playing padel and swimming.

When we arrived, the guy at reception was most concerned that we might miss lunch, so insisted we sat down and ate, with a chilled glass of wine, before we begun to check in.

It was really quite a marvellous to begin our holiday.

The comparison to Señor Burnham’s arrival in Number 10 is almost so obvious it feels trite to spell it out.

As he swanned into Number 10, he got straight into the frivolity of the thing. He’s spent his lovely time travelling the country, cosplaying various roles. He stacked shelves in Sainsbury’s with Sadiq Khan and Pat MacFadden; he’s donned high vis and hard hats. All that stuff.

To accompany all this, he’s been making various announcements on pretty much everything.

This long, hot summer of Burnham love. He’s not even checked in yet.

We return home on Monday. The reality of September and actual work and a world in which nobody is handing out drinks is going to hit hard.

I can’t tell you exactly how this first Parliamentary week is going to go. There is plenty of time and space for him to come to Parliament and make a statement on Tuesday, to check in as it were. He probably will.

If not, we’ll get our first look at the new(ish) Prime Minister on Wednesday at PMQs.

Things are about to get real.

Peace and love,

Tatton x

ps - as I write an email from Which? has landed in my inbox, including a link to an article for the best raincoats. Raincoats. Winter is coming.

Yeah, we're laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria
As the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin'
Teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family
He ain't no friend of mine

Bruce Springsteen

One of us

There is an umbrella organisation who ‘are pivotal in co-ordinating the UK public's response to overseas disasters’. They’re called the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and they orchestrate high profile fund raising and deploy various charities on the scene.

The DEC have not yet launched an appeal for the horrific situation in Tibet, but the website says they are looking at it.

They have three criteria that helps them decide whether or not to swing into action.

The first two are pretty intuitive - is the crisis big enough to need them and do they have the capacity in their charities to make an impact worth a national appeal.

The third is really interesting - support. Would the British public care enough to make an appeal successful.

The need for this third criteria is very telling - if the disaster is big enough to warrant an appeal and if there is the capacity for the DEC to help, would there really be a situation where we just don’t care? Apparently so.

A look at this morning’s Tibet headlines might give us an understanding of why that is. There is often a focus on the 33 British nationals who are missing. The Times even leads with a ‘family from Surrey’ who are feared missing.

We need to feel like we’ve got skin in the game. One of those people could be a friend of a friend of a friend. Six degrees of separation. We really might know someone from Surrey.

It’s easy to sneer at this attitude. If all human life is equally valuable, why do we care about a family from Surrey more than 1,400 people who are missing? It is hard to argue with the theory of this argument, but I think it ignores a fundamental part of human nature. To some extent, we look after the people with whom we empathise.

Let’s examine that a bit closer to home. Last week, seven people died in a car crash. Two were policemen and five were in a car driving the wrong way down the motorway.

There has, rightly, been a flood of grief and support for the police officers, PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough. They were doing their job; the thin blue line between us and crime. Not only did they do nothing wrong, they were doing everything right. Their deaths are tragedies.

There has not been a national outpouring of grief and support for the five young people who also died, Jakub Matusiak, Makai Saddington, Theo Rae, Michael Robert Cahill and Cole Robert Worthy.

The language that has been used to describe them has been deeply unpleasant.

We identify with the police officers. We do not identify with those in the car.

Perhaps it is my time teaching, perhaps I’m just over emotional, but I mourn the tragedy of their lives. How did we get to the point where we have such an ‘underclass’ in society? These are people with so little in their lives they behave in this way. How does this happen? When communities fail, when the state fails, this is the result.

The situation in Middlesborough is increasingly bleak. There is more and more gang violence and hundreds of police officers have been drafted into the area for support.

It is no surprise to read that Middlesborough has the greatest proportion of ‘highly deprived’ neighbourhoods in England. It is the second most deprived of all of English council areas (after Blackpool).

At a vigil for Michael Cahill last night, mourners set fire to cars. That’s an enduring image of division. Again, it comes down to hope and it comes down to belonging. The feeling that you have nothing left to do, but burn cars and release fireworks. Raging into the night.

The death of those boys was their fault. Nobody is forced to burn cars. These are choices made by those individuals. That is not, though, the whole story. There is a system that creates this behaviour. Systematic and institutionalised failure.

If an appeal was considered for this community, it seems unlikely that it would pass the public support test.

This is where the country is. This is how divided and broken we are as a nation. We have a new Prime Minister. He has a lot on his plate.

This is the current plan for next week. This plan was made by Keir Starmer (who?) and his team. There is a ‘Business Statement’ first thing on Tuesday which will lay out the actual stuff they’ll do in this brave new world.

Also, this run-down of the Commons will be moving to the ‘premium’ Monday email over the autumn. I think it’s more useful at the start of the week and we can get really into the topic of the week, too. Pledge now and you’ll be with it from the beginning.

Monday - Bank holiday. Ice cream. Bike rides. Anxiety.

Tuesday - Mr B arrives in the Commons!! I’m genuinely excited. There is very little scheduled, so expect big statements and blockbuster action.

Wednesday - It’s PMQs time. Team Badenoch must be genuinely worried knowing that, whatever they can cook up, it’s going to be a resounding victory lap for the new PM. Not a fun gig.

Then it’s votes at 16, it’s def going through, but raises a question about a written constitution - if ‘Call me Andy’ chooses to go down that route, as he suggests he will, making a change like this would be extremely difficult. We’d be setting today’s status quo into the future. Fear not, lovely reader, we’re going to get properly into this debate some day soon.

Thursday - We like hosting stuff. We’ve got the 2028 Euros and we’re bidding for 2035 Women’s World Cup. There has been chat about bidding for the Men’s World Cup, too (because, of course there has).

Today a bill arrives from the Lords to make that process easier.

Right. That’s enough of this ‘sitting at my desk on holiday’ thing. I think it’s cold drink o’clock.

Be well x

You can now listen to me reading this email by clicking on the listen icon.

Last week some lovely people told me they really enjoyed it, so will def continue for a few weeks.

I’m pretty sure that everyone on the bus / train / park would like to hear it, too, so no need to worry about headphones.

A quick advert before we get started. I’m not sure if you know that we do comms training. If you or you office or whoever would like to brush up on your social media skills, drop me a line.

Dear lovely people,

We’ve been under increasing pressure to write about things that the Prime Minister hasn’t said.

I can see that it’s frustrating. If you’re a campaigner on something, you really hope that the PM will make it clear that this is his priority.

I would like to see named contacts for people with ‘severe’ mental health conditions; a focus on political and financial education in schools and cricket to be included in the Olympics.

He hasn’t said a word on any of these things.

He has spoken about walk-in mental health clinics, so people don’t need to be referred by the GP in order to get support. He’s also creating an alternative space for those in crisis so they don’t have to go to A&E. It’s a nice start, but doesn’t do much for those of us living with chronic and (occasionally) debilitating conditions.

Perhaps he’s shown his intent and more is on the way. Perhaps he’s put mental health in the ‘done’ pile and will move on. We shall see.

There has been a lot of chat about education, but mostly focused on technical and apprenticeships. Lucy Powell did an absolutely awful video for her socials in which she made a cup of tea in some kind of staff room kitchen while saying that there are different options for you if results haven’t gone your way. I’m not sure who it was supposed to help.

We know that education chat is coming. A tailored curriculum for communities, all of that. Is there to be a focus on political critical thinking and debate? No mention. How about managing debt and budgeting? Not a word.

Again, that doesn’t mean that our new PM won’t come to these things, he just hasn’t spoken about them yet.

Cricket at the Olympics? I can only presume he’s waiting for his big speech at the Labour Party Conference, where he will invite the entire One Day England squad onto the stage to celebrate the announcement of this campaign. Hilarity will ensue when it turns out they’ve all been drinking for since yesterday and try to start a fight with a bouncer.

It is hard. We all want specific things on the agenda. If it’s water nationalisation or foreign policy or whatever else on which he’s not been massively verbose. We just have to give it some time.

‘The first star I see may not be a star
We can't do a thing but wait
So let's wait for one more’

Jimmy Eat World

Peace and love,

Tatton x

ps - no email next week as I’m up in Leeds to watch England play cricket on my birthday. I shall be back on 28th to preview what’s going to be quite the autumn.

If you’d like more of this, I think I’ll be starting a Monday briefing email for paid subscribers in the autumn.

If that’s something you’d be up for, please pledge now, using the various buttons that Substack likes to insert. If there is enough demand, it will happen!

Do you talk to me (to me)
When you're talking to yourself, self?
When you're talking to your
Talk to me (to me)
When you're talking to yourself

Carly Rae Jepsen

Two (or more) things at the same time

Thing one:

Nigel Farage has stood up to the establishment. They were coming at him all the time. The BBC and the Guardian, the hecklers and the haters. Wave after wave of abuse and fabrication.

An MP doesn’t have many leavers to pull, so what could he do? He resigned as an MP and asked the good people of Clacton to back him and show his support.

The other parties decided not to stand against him - of course they did! Why would they want to lose to Farage? This is proof that the establishment don’t care about Clacton. This is proof that the ‘uni-party’ are running scared.

The sheer contempt in which Clactonites are held is evident in every sneering reference to a joke candidate. Joke candidates are a fine tradition in British electoral life and shouldn’t be discouraged, of course, but using this guy as a cypher, a woke dog whistle… the establishment should be ashamed of itself.

Of course, last night Farage got his resounding success. Turnout was much lower than in the General Election (down to 44% from 58%), but 44% is a decent number for a by-election. Even with fewer votes to distribute, Farage got over a thousand more votes than last time.

Kemi Badenoch wrote a letter to everyone in the constituency, Rachel Reeves quipped about him spending the summer arguing with a bin. That’s uni-party bullying. When push comes to shove, the people of Clacton back Nigel Farage. They want him to represent them in Parliament.

Immediately, the Commission are going back to look at these spurious sleaze claims. A rich man gave him some money - before he was even running to be an MP. How is this a story? The only reason it’s a story is because Farage speaks a truth that has previously been unspoken.

He will blast through this because he is the man the people want to be the next Prime Minister. He will save our country.

As he said this morning: ‘Today, the voters in Clacton have stuck up two fingers to the entire political establishment.'

Thing Two:

The absolute state of it. The snake oil salesman, never far from sleaze, never far from scandal, has thrown his toys out the pram.

Things have been going wrong for Farage since the local elections in 2025. The problem with winning things is that you have to then run things.

They are inexperienced and simply don’t know what they’re doing. Culture wars and deeply unpleasant opinions at the heart of Town Halls across the country.

He then announced some ‘shadow ministers’. Zia Yusuf, for example, is the Shadow Home Secretary. Of course, he’s not. The ‘Shadow’ is an official position. It is the name for the Official Opposition’s minister who shadows the Secretary of State. That’s the Conservatives. Other parties have spokespeople for Home Affairs. This is classic Reform, trying to sound big and important, but actually being misleading and factually incorrect.

Every week it feels like there is another shady thing about Farage himself. Most of all that £5m payment. It turns out that he had actually been ‘thinking’ about running for election in 2024 when the payment was made. £5m.

The thing about rich people is that they tend to like being rich people. They do not hand out £5m here and £5m there. This is not a reasonable argument.

Now it’s falling apart on the right, too. His old friend Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain are stealing votes on the right. Badenoch has slowly started to re-build her party and take some votes from the centre. Reform’s bubble is bursting.

So, of course he strops about and calls an unneccesary election.

Nobody would dignify it with a response. Why validate this odd move? Let him degrade himself by facing off against Binface. It’s hilarious.

Now he’s an MP again, the investigations are back up and running. He can run, but he can’t hide. The mask is slipping.

Conclusions:

It is likely that you either fall into one of the things above, or at least sympathise strongly with one of the arguments.

The thing is, if you do, it is likely that this opinion is validated everywhere. The media you consume, the social media algorithm, Chat GTP is programmed to be validating and tell you how right you are.

People don’t talk about echo chambers any more. It’s all a bit 2019. But they’re stronger than ever.

Both the things above are true at the same time, because these narratives are real. The way you feel isn’t irrelevant. To many people Nigel Farage being an MP again feels exactly the same as it did before all of this. To others it has a whole new meaning. An MP with a real mandate.

Politics isn’t just about arguments and policy, it’s always been about emotions and response. Communities can feel things collectively.

I was speaking to a member of the LGBT community recently about how far we’ve come as a country in terms of same sex couples. To me it feels like there is near universal acceptance that, love is love.

This did not go down well. They had suffered a huge amount of abuse just for being who they are. My understanding wasn’t just ignorant, it was offensive and denying their experience.

I had to understand my own echo chamber. I wanted a thing to be true and it looked true and my experience suggested it was true. It was not true. I was wrong.

I hate that I was wrong. I hate that this is still a problem, but isn’t wishful thinking so frequently a feature of the echo chamber?

Nothing in this country is going to improve while we dig further and further into our own, comfortable spaces. We need to have conversations and find common ground.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to start with yourself. Watch GB News, read the Guardian, listen to phone ins on local radio. Understand where you stand. What feelings hold you back? What do you believe is true because you want it to be true?

The House of Commons is in recess until September.

The new Phoebe Bridgers album is out today. Hearing her beautiful voice on 15 new tracks is just wonderful.

‘I’m on the outside, watching.’

Be well x

You can now listen to me reading this email by clicking on the listen icon. Honestly, this is the first time I have done this and I’m not quite sure where that icon is, but Substack assures me it’s easy to spot.

So, click the icon, put your phone down and relax!

Dear lovely people,

This time last week, I was in Sardinia. It was really, really hot. I don’t think I’ve ever been so hot.

I’ve heard people say they were too hot on holiday before, but always rather dismissed it - you’re on holiday! it’s supposed to be hot! - all of that. Yeah, I feel a little silly now.

We landed right at the tail end of the last heatwave and I’ve been loving the UK temperature. Warm enough for shorts and Utepils (that’s outdoor drinking, but in Norway and I it sounds cooler). Not too hot to think.

That’s about to end. On Sunday, we’re staring down the barrel of another hot hot phase.

In the olden days, summers were defined by cultural events. The Olympics or Brat Summer. I remember in 1993, dinosaurs were everywhere as Jurassic Park was in the cinema.

This summer will be remembered for it just being too hot. Too hot to sleep, too hot to breathe. I presume there will be a complete cessation of births in March, April and May next year. Surely it’s too hot for any of those special cuddles.

Most of the country is in drought. Most of the country has hosepipe bans. A thousand pound fine is threatened, although water companies aren’t keen on actually fining people. They just want you to tow the line and save some water.

We all know what’s behind this. The climate has changed because of human activity.

While this is generally accepted, there isn’t as much chat about it as one might think.

I saw one article saying that we shouldn’t stress about it, just enjoy the Mediterranean lifestyle. Clearly that’s not a sustainable plan. Our farms and food security is built around being able to grow grain and vegetables, not olives and lemons.

We need to act on climate change. We need to talk about how we’re going to do that.

There doesn’t seem much appetite for that right now. Data centres seem to be the order of the day. Even the Green Party, under Zack Polanski, seem to be focused on wealth taxes more than the environment.

I don’t have a series of policies I’d advocate. I don’t really know what the answer is - I’d just like to see more of a national conversation about it.

That said, I have got a family BBQ to celebrate Felix’s 11th birthday on Sunday and it’s going to be pretty nice out.

Peace and love,

Tatton x

If you’d like more of this, I think I’ll be starting a Monday briefing email for paid subscribers in the autumn.

If that’s something you’d be up for, please pledge now, using the various buttons that Substack likes to insert. If there is enough demand, it will happen!

Though I keep searching for an answer
I never seem to find what I'm looking for
Oh, Lord, I pray
You give me strength to carry on

'Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams

Whitesnake

On and on it goes

When the film version of The Madness of King George III was released in 1994, they changed the title so it was just The Madness of King George. There was a worry that some audiences might be put off, thinking that it was the third installment of the King George films and skip it because they hadn’t seen the first two.

This is not the first email I have written about the plight of the young people in our country. It is not even the first time I have used title to Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for a Doomed Youth as the title for this email. Originally, I called it Part 74 , but I cut that in case you, lovely reader, thought you’d missed the first 73.

Long hot summers should have a special place for our teenage population. Weeks and weeks of self discovery. Going on adventures, maybe your first kiss, maybe your first time being allowed out with your friends and no adult supervision.

American films on this always have a tinge of sadness as groups of friends spend one final summer together before they split up for school or college. Stand By Me is the very best of that, but there are many others.

For a few years in the 90s, I always used to break into the local park to sit on a bench and watch the sun come up on the 1st September as an end to that heady chapter.

The conversations about young people these days are not, however, prudish adults worried about our young people and their antics. Shock about the contents of rap music, or recreational drugs.

No, the chat this week has been on a bleak future. The lack of opportunity. The lack of hope.

A BBC survey said that 42% of 25 year olds are living with their parents. Back in the 1980s, 43% owned their own homes. Wages, say the BBC, haven’t grown in real terms in 20 years. They’re so much worse off than their parents were at their age.

Meanwhile, the government has been talking schools.

Lucy Powell (who is now the Education Secretary, come on, keep up!) wrote in the Times that Michael Gove created an education system that was so focused on ‘academic’ subjects that it was a ‘straightjacket’ that left many young people feeling like failures.

We got some (highly unsurprising) data on young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). They’re disproportionately young people who were on Free School Meals and / or classed as SEN at school.

That’ll be the poor and the vulnerable.

Most people - yes, more than 50% - who are NEET in one year are then also NEET in the next.

This morning, the Guardian published an interview with Alan Milburn, who is writing a report for the government about NEETs, in which he suggests that Primary Schools should be identifying children at risk of becoming NEET later in life.

I wrote a post about this on SP this morning and many (most) of the comments were on the awfulness of asking teachers to do this. That wasn’t my response. I am horrified by the evidence based understanding that it is possible to identify people as young as 10 as being on this path. The horrific predictability of a doomed future.

Children on a path to nowhere. Let down by their schools, their communities, their government from birth.

It’s not just a personal tragedy, but a huge loss to the country. Imagine all the things that the people who are currently slipping through the net could do if they were empowered to achieve their potential.

There was an announcement this week that individuals will receive attendance targets as a way to get people into school. The rates of people even making it into school haven’t recovered from Covid.

What chance do we have if we can’t even get people into school?

Of course this is a class issue, too. It’s only a tiny percentage, but young people who attend boarding school aren’t missing many lessons. Private schools in general have much better attendance rates. Grammar schools have better attendance rates.

Can you smell the hopelessness of all of this? What motivation is there to work hard at school if you feel like failure, and the future holds low wages and being stuck at home with your mum?

People complain about young people and their mental health, but given this hopelessness, it isn’t surprising.

You ain’t buying a house. You ain’t ever going to have enough to retire. You ain’t going on foreign (any?) holidays.

The long term solution here, as with so much, is growth. An economy that’s booming, where jobs flow freely, with career progression and decent wages. Where companies are desperate to invest in young people through apprenticeships. Where there are jobs in every area, so there is no brain drain to the cities. Where there are enough houses. Where transport can zip people around the country.

The education system has to change, too. Yes people need to read good. Yes they need to add and subtract and differentiate. But everyone needs to feel valued, whatever it is they happen to be good at. A broad and rich curriculum.

These are long term solutions. Very long term solutions. This, though, is a long term problem.

There are young people, right now, being failed. Who are looking at the horizon, right now, and seeing nothing there for them. We need action and we need it damn fast.

The House of Commons is in recess until September.

The Times ran an article this week about Burnham not being able to shift his ‘midlife paunch’, despite his running. Seriously. The Telegraph did something similar a couple of weeks ago.

The things people do when they’ve got clicks to gather…

Be well x

Who we are

Simple Politics does things differently. We exist to help you have better conversations about the issues and the changes that matter. We do so by being clear, accurate and impartial. Also, light-hearted, engaging and occasionally (but not as often as we think) amusing.

It's not just about understanding the facts and the topics themselves but also looking at why different people hold the opinions they do. Those with whom you disagree aren't monsters. Understanding and respect are at the core of everything we do.

Our core offering will always be free.

Unfortunately, giving things away for free isn't a great business model. We've never been business people. But. We do need to make this work.

We do so through our amazing supporters, who keep us going by buying stuff in our shop and making monthly donations.

This podcast has been Produced by Stripped Media

If you want to know more about this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast has been Produced by Stripped Media

If you want to know more about this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast has been Produced by Stripped Media

If you want to know more about this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the last day of the school year. The Commons wrapped up yesterday.

We launched into this session in September full of hope and expectation; opportunity and potential.

As the curtain comes down, we can look back. What have we achieved?

Except, it’s actually really hard. It’s difficult to look back on a year. What happened in October? Or February? Nobody knows.

I took my son Alfred (Year 9 ) to school this morning and asked him what he’s enjoyed this year. He gave three things (going on a school trip to France, playing tennis with his mum, a band camp), all of which happened in the last 6 weeks.

The events of May are lost, let alone November.

Instead, we’re left with the emotion. Years of relief and exhaustion, pushing to get over the line. It’s a wall of relief, it’s a wall of excitement. It’s nostalgia, it’s mourning for as year that’s gone (and the years before that are longer gone).

Perhaps I feel it more than most. I was at school, then I was a teacher, then I worked in Parliament, then I was a teacher again. Now I work around Parliament and my children’s school year. I have always been in hock to the school calendar.

Also, I feel emotions pretty strongly anyway.

The difference this year is that, having made it to the finish line, broken and proud, there is no rest.

Many schools will throw their gates open early today. Half days are in order. Simultaneously, we will have a new leader of the Labour Party.

Señor Burnham will be announced at midday. He will make a speech at 2.30 or so (just in time for those leaving school for the year to get home and switch on the TV).

On Monday, he will be Prime Minister.

There is no time to look back and reflect. Wednesday saw a vaguely tedious farewell PMQs for Sir Keir. He took an emotional trip to Ukraine yesterday.

We’re jumping from emotional endings to new pencil cases in a matter of hours.

Plunged into relentless new beginnings.

You may like to schedule in some time for reflection. Possibly 11.30-11.35 this morning.

Peace and love,

Tatton x

ps - You’ll be given a break from these emails for at least a couple of weeks. I’m off to Florence and Tuscany for a bit. Throwing in some Sardinia action, too.

There may be an email mid-August, it depends how much I’ve missed you, really. I suspect I will write.

This is the last email of term. It’s been a long old slog.

If you’ve enjoyed these weekly letters, you can buy me a ‘coffee’ here.

I say ‘coffee’ because that’s what the website. The money will almost certainly be spend on cold drinks on warm evenings in Italy as The Wonderful Katie and I celebrate our first anniversary.

Buy me a coffee!!

If you’d like more of this, I think I’ll be starting a Monday briefing email for paid subscribers in the autumn.

If that’s something you’d be up for, please pledge now, using the various buttons that Substack likes to insert. If there is enough demand, it will happen!

It's all we're skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls

Elvis Costello

(but I like the Suede version from the 1995 ‘Help’ War Child album)

Tricky beginnings (and middles and probably endings)

The problem about the Daily Telegraph is that you can never quite tell what they think about things.

Last night they sent out a push notification with the headline ‘‘A legacy of surrender’: How Andy Burnham’s first week could break Britain’. Today’s front page story is ‘Burnham has become a global laughing stock before even entering No 10’. There is also a prominent headline that reads ‘Burnham is coming for your home’.

Like I say, it’s a hard to tell where they stand.

Perhaps that paper’s output can be dismissed. They were never going to swoon over a new Labour PM. The Guardian, though, might be expected to be more supportive.

They are a little cage-y in their tone. Their headline right now: ’Burnham to say his government will be ‘unashamedly Labour’ in first speech as party leader’. They also have a prominent article entitled ‘‘Bizarre choice’: business and Labour puzzle over Shabana Mahmood as future chancellor’.

It’s hard to find anyone anywhere - outside of slightly breathless interviews with Labour MPs - that is effusive about the incoming Mr B.

I have just received an email from my sons’ school with a ‘food map of Faversham’ for the summer holidays. The Umbrella will be giving out free packed lunches, Leo’s Lounge will be doing free cereal, fruit and juice from 9am-11am on weekdays. There is a scheme to co-ordinate neighbours to drop round a portion or two of their cooked meals.

This is not as a result of a natural disaster. This is not a temporary relief effort.

This is everyday life in Britain in 2026.

We are starting the school holidays with the knowledge that there will be many families who can’t afford to feed their children.

There is consensus in Westminster that the first duty of a government is Defence. We have to keep our country safe from nations and other baddies who would do us harm.

Our new leader said as much in an online video he released last night.

If that’s the first priority, the second must, surely, be tackling poverty. The number of people who are chronically reliant on charity to avoid hunger is a national disgrace.

Of course, poverty is very hard to deal with. It’s deeply entrenched in some communities who are entirely left behind.

We’re told that ‘Manchesterism’ is the future and sold the success of the city will be spread around the country. There have been huge productivity gains in the city. Brand new buildings. A sense of purpose.

Also, Manchester is the 4th most deprived council out of 296 in England. The Church of England led ‘Greater Manchester Together’ estimate there are 620,000 people - including over 200,000 children - ‘living in poverty and struggling to put food on the table’ in the area.

They point out that ‘Food poverty is worse diet, worse access, worse health, higher percentage of income on food and less choice from a restricted range of foods. Above all food poverty is about less or almost no consumption of fruit and vegetables.’

This is the Manchester that we are promised the country can emulate.

In Makerfield, bus services declined by 37% from 2010 - 2023. The vaunted bus successes of the Greater Manchester area do not seem to reach all postcodes. There are only 22 public electric car chargers in the entire constituency.

It’s not just a human and empathetic issue. Cold hard economics wants to end poverty. We want people to be able to achieve their potential.

People living in poverty have worse health outcomes, which leads to higher bills for the NHS, higher disability benefits and lower productivity / tax revenue.

Alas, taking people out of poverty is hard.

The video shared last night featured The Burnhamator promising to ‘spend political capital’ on social care. He talked about the biggest expansion of council houses since the dinosaurs (or, maybe the post war period). He has previously spoken about getting people back into work. The importance of libraries for every child.

We don’t know much about his policies, but the ones we do know about do seem to have a poverty focus. He can see the problem, even if he couldn’t solve it in Manchester.

On the eve of this new beginning, please join me in raising a glass to this new regime. Whatever your political leaning, we need him to succeed. Next summer, maybe we can have fewer children needing a ‘food map of Faversham’.

Señor Burnham - the future is in your hands. Please, please don’t mess it up.

The House of Commons is in recess until September. Efforts to bring Mr B into the chamber to face questions were seen off by Labour who don’t seem keen on scrutiny.

The Lords are doing their thing and working through some important bits and bobs until Thursday 23rd.

The BBC published a story about how to cope with England losing the football. Talking, walking, accepting. I don’t know if it was an intentional way to start a conversation about mental wellbeing, but it works well.

If we rely on stereotypes a little, many of the supporters most crushed by the whole thing are the hardest to reach with mental health chat.

I think that we need a similar post from the BBC about how to cope with the emotions of the last day of the summer term.

Be well x

Who we are

Simple Politics does things differently. We exist to help you have better conversations about the issues and the changes that matter. We do so by being clear, accurate and impartial. Also, light-hearted, engaging and occasionally (but not as often as we think) amusing.

It's not just about understanding the facts and the topics themselves but also looking at why different people hold the opinions they do. Those with whom you disagree aren't monsters. Understanding and respect are at the core of everything we do.

Our core offering will always be free.

Unfortunately, giving things away for free isn't a great business model. We've never been business people. But. We do need to make this work.

We do so through our amazing supporters, who keep us going by buying stuff in our shop and making monthly donations.

This podcast has been Produced by Stripped Media

If you want to know more about this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’d like proof that we live in a world of hyperbole and superlative, I urge you to take in the middle aisle of Aldi this week.

The mass production of mugs that claim to be for ‘The best teacher in the world’ raises many questions. How many mugs does that exceptional educator need? Who decided?

Why sell them on the free market where they might end up in the wrong hands, like that time when La La Land was incorrectly given the Oscar for Best Film, when the actual winner was Moonlight?

I might just be bitter. During my decade in the classroom, I never got a sniff of that action. My cupboard was littered with mugs proclaiming my mediocrity. ‘You’re probably in the world’s top 75% of teachers, but we haven’t seen all of them so can’t be sure.’

The proliferation of these gifts means it must be July. Things are wrapping up.

In Parliament, too. Just one last week.

I’ve not seen any teddies with ‘World’s Best MP’ on their tummies, but I live in Canterbury with Rosie Duffield as our representative. I presume they just don’t sell them in my area.

Things are a little loose right now. Nigel Farage has chosen to duck out early. David Lammy announced a surprise pardon at PMQs. The PM almost gave us a Bank Holiday if England win the World Cup.

I’m not going to be sentimental about the forthcoming break. That’ll be next week’s email.

The next 9 days are going to be a little surreal. Nobody is sleeping well in this heat. In England, we’re in this collective emotional football based turmoil. The Prime Minister is in the dying days of his time in office and will go down swinging.

Peace and love,

Tatton x

Every now and then, I know you'll never be the boy
You always wanted to be

Bonnie Tyler

When it’s gone it’s gone

I’m just some guy, sitting at his desk writing you this letter. There is no reason for you to trust a word I say.

We see articles everywhere saying things like ‘I’m a polar explorer and these are the base layers you need’, ‘I spent a year in Mexico and these are the best nacho cheeses’ or ‘I’m a fancy sommelier and these are the summer wines you have to try before you die’. Your death is frequently used as some kind of a threat, which is an odd quirk of 2026.

I can’t compete with that. I have no ‘I am’ credentials. I can’t tell you that I have a degree in politics, or that I’ve been a top civil servant. Perhaps I could go with ‘I’ve been writing overly whimsical emails about politics for 11 years, here is the best way to write a convoluted intro’.

The point about these initial identifiers is that it builds trust from a standing start.

Other people have trust thrust upon them by institutions. Should Chris Mason off of the BBC decide he’s had enough and they appointed a new Top Politics Person, there would be a level of trust imbued upon the replacement - even if we hadn’t heard of them before.

I have neither. I sit here and write to you every Friday with no oversight and no editorial guidelines. I literally make it up as I go along.

And yet, I think you do trust me. If you’ve got past the nacho cheese joke, there must be a level of trust.

If I have gained your trust, I think it’s because of that longevity. I have nothing to prove who I am or the good faith with which I write, except a track record. Simple Politics has published 8,505 posts on Instagram. You can go back through them and see who we are and what we do. I’ve written hundreds of these emails.

Trust is something you build over time. Slowly, bit by bit. It’s also something that can be destroyed in an instant.

A week ago, I broke that trust. A man in a pub told me that the England kick off time had been moved to 7pm on Sunday evening. I wanted it to be true. I really wanted it to be true, so I didn’t really read the notifications on my phone. I hammered out an update and published it.

It then turned out that it wasn’t true at all. It hadn’t been confirmed. I was incorrect. I hadn’t checked. I had spread an untruth on an internet that doesn’t need extra untruths.

I took it down pronto and posted an apology on Sunday morning. I think that, on this occasion, no harm was done. We learn and we go again.

The sheer number of half truths and no truths out there has lead to an initiative from the government that would see trusted news providers given priority on social networks. Search for a story and ITV news, for example, would pop up first.

The sources to be given the boost include ‘BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4, S4C and 5, and other trustworthy providers’.

I understand the premise here. Accountability is key - there are processes that these sources go through to ensure a level or truth. That is not true for ‘news creators’ online. We’ve all seen untruths from them (/us).

The issue is that it can’t possibly work. The act of promoting specific sources damages the trust in those sources. These are specifically stories that the man wants you to see. What else is going on?

There is also an initiative to fund local journalism. News outlets can apply for up to £125k to boost their infrastructure (not for day to day spending). That’s a nice idea. I fear it’s too little too late.

Local news is really, really hard to fund. Their websites - I’m sure you’ve seen - are so full of adverts, it’s hard to read the story you’re after. That doesn’t create trust. The number of clickbait stories, too, really don’t help.

A one off cash injection, even a decent wedge of cash, can’t reverse the trend. Papers and online outfits are closing, others are being bought and run centrally by companies like Reach and Newsquest.

Nigel Farage has built up trust over time. He’s been a relentless and focused campaigner, he takes all the questions from the media, he is outspoken and tells his truth. The smoking and drinking and general malarky makes him more genuine, too. Not like the rest of them.

Honesty and frankness is his thing - and it’s done him and his various parties very, very well indeed.

That makes these current allegations of impropriety all the harder. He’s allowed to make extra money by recording videos or flogging gold, but if it turns out he’s been in the pocket of big business this whole time, it’s different. That makes him exactly like the rest of ‘em.

No wonder we’ve seen such fury from the man. He’s livid and determined to prove that he is the victim of establishment conspiracy. Is some of the rage exaggerated? Well, he must have known that he has previously published photos of the house that he is outraged that the newspapers published photos of.

There will be people who will never abandon Farage, but there are not enough of them to win a General Election. This could be chronic and terminal reputational damage. He’s fighting.

Ultimately, it can only be individuals who decide who they trust. You can’t just push something up the algorithm, pump in a bit of cash, resign and create a byelection circus.

The only way out of this is to build media literacy and critical thinking. Nobody has a real plan for that; in the meantime we’re left with half baked plans and initiatives.

Oddly, a pretty wild week to finish this term.

Monday - Immigration and Asylum Bill is in town to begin its journey through Parliament.

The people want action on immigration and that’s what the government are giving them.

Less comfortable accomodation for which you’ll have to pay if and when you are allowed to stay and start earning. Stricter definitions of ‘family’. Tighter appeals. It’s going to be easier to deport foreign criminals.

Tuesday - Representation of the People Bill is back. Votes at 16, tighter grip on donations and disclosures etc. It has been added to recently, mostly because of Nigel Farage.

Wednesday - Keir Starmer’s final, final PMQs. 12pm. You’re going to want to watch. Seriously, book the time off work. Call in sick. Buy a new widescreen TV. Watch it.

Not much after that, but we won’t need anything else.

Thursday - It’s the ‘Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment Debate’ in which MPs are mostly free to bring up whatever they would like to raise in the chamber. You get some surprisingly good contributions.

Friday - Summer Recess begins. MPs will return in September.

There are loads of people who get cross with head meds. They say that putting mind altering drugs into your body isn’t going to help.

I don’t agree.

Lithium and lamotrigine have held the manic episodes off for a couple of years now. I’m calmer. It’s better. It’s not just kama.

I’m thinking about it this week because I’ve been in something of a depressive fug since February. In June I increased my escitalopram dosage and the clouds have lifted a little. I’ve been able to enjoy things in a way I haven’t in months.

It’s good.

Be well x

Who we are

Simple Politics does things differently. We exist to help you have better conversations about the issues and the changes that matter. We do so by being clear, accurate and impartial. Also, light-hearted, engaging and occasionally (but not as often as we think) amusing.

It's not just about understanding the facts and the topics themselves but also looking at why different people hold the opinions they do. Those with whom you disagree aren't monsters. Understanding and respect are at the core of everything we do.

Our core offering will always be free.

Unfortunately, giving things away for free isn't a great business model. We've never been business people. But. We do need to make this work.

We do so through our amazing supporters, who keep us going by buying stuff in our shop and making monthly donations.

This podcast has been Produced by Stripped Media

If you want to know more about this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keir Starmer is telling everyone how he won’t take lectures from the Conservative Party and insisting that he’s done a very good job, actually. I believe that his girlfriend goes to another school, so we don’t know them.

Señor Burnham is giving us teaser trailers of what it will be like to wander in an Andy Wonderland.

A Number 10 in the North! What does that mean? Nobody knows.

He’s going to follow all the Labour 2024 manifesto, including the money bits - but there is some room for movement on money things. What does that mean? Nobody knows.

Something about taxing out of town stores more to fund cuts to taxes for pubs. It’s a weirdly specific plan in a world of platitudes. Can we extrapolate from there? Nobody knows.

Then there is loads of online chatter about kicking Palantir out of our NHS. Is this an actual policy? Can we remove one conglomerate out of the NHS in its entirety? Is there any evidence that whoever replaces them will be less shady? Nobody knows.

Parliament has ground to a halt.

Yesterday was filled with debate as to whether or not pubs should be allowed to stay open until 5am on Monday morning. The answer to that is ‘yes’, but also ‘make sure you go to school / work the next day’. Hmmmm.

Please, lovely people, don’t operate heavy machinery after drinking till five watching England lose on penalties, 2,200 meters above sea level. It was in 2001 that *Nsync played their seminal hit ‘Bye bye bye’ at the Azteca Stadium - 25 years later, those chickens are going to come home to roost.

Lucky for us, newspapers have pages to fill. We can enjoy endless, meaningless speculation as to what might happen.

Predictions are a fun game for journalists. Get it right and you look like some kind of modern day prognosticator. Get it wrong and, well, at least you tried.

For now, please remember that nobody knows anything. Not the future PM, not the journalists, not the MPs. Certainly not me.

If this frustrates you, I’ve got some bad news. Our new leader will take the reins the day after Parliament packs up for the summer. He won’t say a single word in the Commons until September.

A long, hot summer of speculative soothsayers awaits.

Peace and love,

Tatton x

I feel sick tonight
Ring the bell, throw in the towel; I ain't fit to fight
I'm in Hell; I don't know how I can hit this height
I've gotta overcome it, keep spitting tight, keep spitting tight

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

Not fit to fight.

If you’re feeling fancy, you can pop yourself onto the internet and order yourself some Meta glasses. They’ll set you back at least £250. Some of the trendier Oakley versions are twice that.

Sure, that’s expensive, but what a treat! You can ask your glasses to give you recipe ideas. Who hasn’t wished that their glasses could help you decide what to have for your tea?

It’s not just for foodies, either. You can send messages, get directions and block UVA rays from your eyes.

Amazingly, none of these are the feature that really sell this technological wizardry.

It’s all about the camera. You can, without anyone knowing, record your surroundings in Ultra HD.

You can now pay £250 and be able to be as much of a creep as you’d like. You can record anyone, anywhere. Voyeurism on the free market. A lecher’s paradise.

Sometimes, the world is too boring. If you’ve splashed the cash to make some banter content, people going about their daily business isn’t going to cut it. You need to spice things up.

Passive degenerate to active provocateur.

Inspirational footage is hard to create. Humiliation, misogyny, assault and all the rest of it - that’s easy. Bullying for likes. All recorded in Ultra High Definition and live streamed for your viewers pleasure.

This week, the shopworkers’ union, Usdaw, warned that their members were being harrassed in order to create content. They aren’t the only ones.

The police have some powers here. Assault is assault whether or not someone is wearing these glasses. We have new rules about harassment.

It is unclear, though, quite what is legal and what isn’t. Where is the line between being a slimeball and breaking the law? What can we expect from law enforcement on this? Especially if the act of filming is inherently secret.

It’s not just these spectacles. E-scooters and e-bikes are in this odd grey area where nobody really knows what is legal and what isn’t.

Crime is committed online, but enforcement is a nightmare.

The problem is this - we can’t keep up. Those who wish to benefit from harms and potential harms of others are finding more and more avenues for their nefarious deeds. Big tech isn’t just facilitating, it’s encouraging.

We’re constantly on the back foot, legislating for yesterday’s problems.

Making a law is a long and complicated process. That’s not a bad thing - good laws need serious scrutiny and debate. Experts need to be consulted. Consequences, intended and unintended, need to be examined. This takes time.

We’re in an arms race with the degenerates. Every time we cut off a head, two more grow.

We’ve been here before with narcotics. 15 years ago, different synthetic drugs were being pumped onto the market. They weren’t specifically described in legislation, so weren’t illegal. Every time one was banned, another would pop up.

To stop it, the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 was put in place. It is a blanket ban on all substances that alter your mental state. There are exemptions for the substances we quite like: booze, coffee, medicine, etc. Nobody has yet been imprisoned for sniffing flowers and being uplifted by their scent.

Job done. Arms race won. Maybe the war on drugs is still ongoing, but the criminality is clear.

There are other examples of flexibility and fast moving legislation. A new law can give the relevant minister the powers to change things in perpetuity. This is secondary legislation or statutory measures. They’re not always popular because they can be made without any scrutiny, but they do allow government to act quickly.

None of which helps with the fast paced technology. Blanket bans aren’t the answer. The genie is too far out the bottle for that.

We haven’t got any plans as to how we’re going to keep under 16s off social media because we don’t know how to keep under 16s off social media.

Can we allow people to have the tech they want, but also stop reprobates using secret cameras for ill?

E-scooters can get people from a to b in a fun and eco friendly way - but if they’re not allowed on the road or the pavement, can they be used at all?

Don’t even start to think about what AI means in this space. It’s terrifying.

The rate of change brought on by technology is too fast. It’s too much. We haven’t got a hope of keeping up. We can’t expect big tech to help. We’re on our own.

Big tech is back in the changing room, glugging champagne, while we’re still doing up our laces. We’re not fit to fight.

This is, surely, a record low in terms of Parliament not doing anything for a week. Nothing is happening. Nothing. Luckily, the country is doing really well and don’t need any change.

Monday - Bits.

Tuesday - A day for Kemi Badenoch and team to set the agenda.

Wednesday - PMQs with David Lammy (maybe the last one!!) as Starmer is off at Nato.

After that we have Backbench debates. We never, ever have these on a Wednesday, but the government are wandering around, kicking tyres until the arrival of Mr B.

Today, it’s: ‘UK Rearmament and War Fighting Readiness’ and ‘Corridor Care in the NHS’

Thursday - As today is the home of the Backbench Debate, we’ve got a couple more. Debates: ‘a ban on trade with illegal Israeli Settlements’ and ‘the impact of strategic lawsuits against public participation’.

I’m off to Wimbledon tomorrow. We were gifted some nice tickets as a wedding present.

The Wonderful Katie has her outfit picked out. It’s been quite the topic of conversation in the year since we got married.

In an uncertain world, tomorrow we’re going to get confirmation of what we’ve all known all along. She will look amazing.

Alas, we will have to wait a little longer for certainty around Señor Burnham’s policies.

Be well x

Who we are

Simple Politics does things differently. We exist to help you have better conversations about the issues and the changes that matter. We do so by being clear, accurate and impartial. Also, light-hearted, engaging and occasionally (but not as often as we think) amusing.

It's not just about understanding the facts and the topics themselves but also looking at why different people hold the opinions they do. Those with whom you disagree aren't monsters. Understanding and respect are at the core of everything we do.

Our core offering will always be free.

Unfortunately, giving things away for free isn't a great business model. We've never been business people. But. We do need to make this work.

We do so through our amazing supporters, who keep us going by buying stuff in our shop and making monthly donations.

This podcast has been Produced by Stripped Media

If you want to know more about this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every now and again, I think we’ve reached peak incompetence in UK politics. I should have learnt by now.

People always talk about how it’s like something from The Thick of It, but that TV show had narrative structure, a sense of order and jokes. I dream of The Thick of It.

Just to be clear, everyone has known that Señor Burnham is going to be the next Prime Minister for a while. He was stopped from standing in Gorton and Denton because Sir Keir knew SB was going to take his job. That decision was made on 25th January.

It was all anyone in Westminster has been talking about for the whole year. We knew it was coming. Everyone knew it was coming.

How then, are we in a power vacuum, the governance of this country on pause? How do Labour MPs not know if they should have a contest or a coronation?

Either Wes Streeting knew his entire bid to be Prime Minister was, in fact, a ploy to game his way into a Big Job in Mr B’s team - which would make him disingenuous and should prevent him from being invited into any role - or he couldn’t see what everyone else could see - which would make him naïve and incompetent and should prevent him from being invited to any role.

It’s all been so predictable. Nobody was prepared.

The sheer level of ineptitude blows my mind.

This is why I don’t believe in conspiracy theories. Everyone is too useless. Fake the moon landing? Our next PM can’t even articulate the fiscal rules he says he’s committed to.

If I were in an interview and professed to loving my wife, but then couldn’t remember her name, things might be a little awkward.

Journalists pretend not to have noticed. I presume that’s because they are totally culpable in all of this jejune sea.

The current game is to create fantasy cabinets and then, somehow, criticise people within those cabinets.

The role of Chancellor is a hot topic right now. Earlier in the week, the press had given the job to Ed Milliband. By the end of the week, it had been decided that he was far to left wing and would be a terrible Chancellor and how could anyone have suggested otherwise?

This is fun, isn’t it? Don’t worry, it’s only three weeks until everyone’s favourite t-shirt goes to see the King. Things will be better then.

This is the low point. It will never be worse. Right?

Peace and love,

Tatton x

It’s approximately 4bn degrees at my desk this morning. If you’d like to but me an (iced) coffee, you can do so by clicking the button. If you’re reading this after, say, 1pm, it’s possible that you will, in fact, be buying me a cold, fizzy lager.

Buy me a 'coffee'!

With a little bit of luck, we can make it through the night

DJ Luck and MC Neat

Frogs in a pot

Just in case you’re unaware of the frog in a pot thing, it goes like this…

Imagine you want to cook a frog. Obviously you don’t, partly because why would you cook a frog? Also, because it’s far too hot to turn on the hob.

Anyway. Here you are, inexplicably, frog in hand.

Your initial instinct is to bring water to the boil. A little salt in there, maybe even some stock. When it’s reached its optimal 100C, you chuck him in.

Legend has it that Monsieur Ribbit is having none of this. He’s jumping straight out. He’s now hopping round your kitchen and he’s cross. This is bad.

No, the thing you should have done is popped him in the pan when it’s room temperature. At this point the green leggy fella is delighted. ‘What a lovely cool pot of water’, they think (foolishly).

That’s when you turn up the heat. Slowly, slowly warming that water. Getting your simmer on. You have successfully foxed the beast. Ha! You have one cooked, dead frog. Well done, you.

This is where we are. If we were presented with a world this hot as we evolved into humans, we’d have jumped right out, thank you. Not having it. We’d have become something entirely different. Some ice, maybe. Can you evolve into ice? I presume so.

Instead, we had a nice time on this planet for years and years. We had rainforests and barrier reefs and polar ice caps. It was good.

Then up popped the Industrial Revolution, industrial farming and hydration breaks at the World Cup. Each chipping away at all that is good in this world.

We didn’t realise at first that our actions were destroying our planet. Then we kinda did, but carried on anyway. Then, briefly, we were all behind stopping it. That was nice.

All of which brings us to where we are. No, I don’t think that intro was too long.

The UK is hotter than it has ever been in June. Last month it was hotter than it has ever been in May.

Last night (you may have noticed) was one of the hottest nights ever. That’s good if you’re with a, erm, close friend, but it’s bad if you’re just trying to get some sleep.

For the Simple Politics Podcast, we spoke to Alex from the Met Office. He was saying that for them, it is all very exciting. Records being broken all the time. Crunching data that they never thought possible. He said they’re also feeling the weight of it. This is serious. Red warnings are serious.

Oh, and he said that it really, really isn’t like 1976, please shut up about 1976, please.

We’ve always liked to talk about the weather in the UK. That’s partly because it changes so much. Snow and hail and sun and wind and fog and all the rest of it. Sweeping in and out of our lives. Four seasons in a day.

We complain when trains don’t work in the cold - look at the North Pole! Those elves don’t stop making presents just because it’s chilly! But we don’t live in the North Pole so it hasn’t been worth the money to buy in all the infrastructure we need for cold weather present making.

We don’t cope very well with storms and leaves on lines. I’m sure we could spend billions on sorting that, but there isn’t the money or the political will. It’s a couple of weeks a year.

As for the heat? We don’t have air conditioning in our homes. Nothing is really set up for the hot weather.

(I live by the sea, which really should be set up for the hot weather, but there was a sewage ‘run off’ the other day, so nobody is going in.)

We don’t get enough days for it to be worth changing all our infrastructure. It’s a couple of days a year and we survived 1976, right?

It’s not just a couple of days any more. The weather in this country is changing.

We didn’t jump out. It’s heated around us. (See, wasn’t that intro worth it now.)

This is the UK. This isn’t a tale of heat, this is a tale of inequality.

‘New build’ schools, often built with private money in Blair’s PFI ‘Schools for the Future’ plan, in deprived areas were not built for this. Windows don’t open. They have large, hot atriums (atria?), but almost no outdoor space. Right now, no learning is taking place.

The worst affected schools have had to close. Often these schools are in deprived areas. If Primary closes, even for the afternoon, someone’s got to look after the children. That means taking time off work.

Housing, too. Some have gardens, some don’t. Some are old Victorian buildings that stay relatively cool some are new builds (again!) that are impossibly hot.

Fridge size makes a difference. Big American style cooling boxes have ice makers and can be set to be really very chilly. Old little ones in rundown kitchens don’t make things very cool. Those tiny freezer shelves at the top don’t make much ice.

It stacks. All day in an educational furnace, only to return to a small, overwhelmingly hot flat. No way to cool down.

We have this inequality baked in. Schools, homes… care homes, council run swimming pools / gyms. People who have struggled and people who need a little state support to get along have it tougher. Of course those who struggle are disproportionately disabled or have additional health needs.

Libraries might be a good place to go as a free, cooling environment, but they’ve all closed.

Spare a thought for those in prison. We know they’re often stuck in their cells for 23 hours a day. Imagine that in these temperatures. Not many prisons I’m aware of are light and airy places with a refreshing breeze gliding through the bars.

The world of work, too. Air conditioned offices for the well paid. Bin collecting isn’t much fun right now, even if you do start at 5am. Mail / Amazon delivering. Teaching. Anything in a hospital.

What’s to be done? Long term, we’ve got to have another look at what we can do about climate change and how we bring people on that journey.

I genuinely don’t know if extending drilling licences in the North Sea helps or not. If someone else is drilling the same oil, then maybe not? Digging up more fossil fuels doesn’t feel right. Dunno.

Short term, we need to make changes. Yes, that means adjustments to future new builds (as we’ve had announced this week), but our infrastructure is badly out of sync with the country it’s supposed to serve.

We need political will to change this. I’ve heard no politician put forward serious solutions to look at this at a national level. It’s going to be expensive and we’ve got no money.

This is the UK and this is how it works. Situations change and that change has the biggest negative impacts on the poorest in society, the most vulnerable, those already finding life the hardest.

If inequality is your default setting, you’re doing it wrong.

This section should finish with a witty callback to the whole frog thing, or even a clever reason why the World Cup hydration breaks snuck in there, but, honestly, I’m too hot and I’ve made myself all cross at the world, so you’ll have to make your own joke.

Like technical and not terribly interesting weeks in the House of Commons?

You’re going to love this week.

Monday - Not much

Tuesday - Even less, if t’were possible

Wednesday - PMQs.

Not much after that.

Thursday - Debates on ‘Commonhold and leasehold reform and the regulation of property managing agents’ and ‘access to further education’.

Honestly, do check out the Simple Politics Podcast this week. It was so great to chat to Alex from the Met Office. He was so great.

Once you’ve finished that, Phoebe Bridgers has a new song. ‘Lost boys never spent their lunch money’, it goes. She is so great.

Be well x

Who we are

Simple Politics does things differently. We exist to help you have better conversations about the issues and the changes that matter. We do so by being clear, accurate and impartial. Also, light-hearted, engaging and occasionally (but not as often as we think) amusing.

It's not just about understanding the facts and the topics themselves but also looking at why different people hold the opinions they do. Those with whom you disagree aren't monsters. Understanding and respect are at the core of everything we do.

Our core offering will always be free.

Unfortunately, giving things away for free isn't a great business model. We've never been business people. But. We do need to make this work.

We do so through our amazing supporters, who keep us going by buying stuff in our shop and making monthly donations.

This podcast has been Produced by Stripped Media

If you want to know more about this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now

I am one that loved not wisely but too well.

William Shakespeare

Or

My friend, I'll say it clear · I'll state my case, of which I'm certain

Frank Sinatra

Or

Hey you, big star
Tell me when it's over

Deftones

Or

We should have won these games... Everybody’s sad, everybody’s crying.

Arda Guler, 21, a Turkish player after his team was eliminated from the World Cup this week

It’s a time for tears.

Across the country, young people are saying goodbye to their schools and the friends they made along the way. There are promises to meet up, but the real world awaits.

Graduation Days are here - bittersweet moments of endings and beginnings.

The summer solstice has passed; darkness is coming.

With all this emotion crashing around the country, a time of nostalgia and yearning, who could be blamed for wanting to join in. To feel part of something.

And so it was that our Prime Minister stepped away for a weekend in the countryside. Deep reflective moments, looking out over the hills, unnoticed tears making their merry way down his cheeks. Perhaps

He has tried, really, really hard. We’ve all seen that. It’s over now.

As he broke down into tears at the end of his speech, he spoke about ‘the most important job’ of being a husband and a father.

These heady summer days.

It didn’t have to be like this. He could have stood at the podium and defied his MPs. It’s the members (and trade unions etc) who decide. He would automatically be on the ballot.

He could have gone to them and made the case for continuity and delivery, the need to get through this transitional few years into the glorious future. When the fruits of his Labour are felt by the nation, popularity will return, he could say, stick with it. Let’s go lovely people, let’s run this joint.

That’s not the path he’s chosen.

Nope, we’ve got a new Prime Minister on the way. This is the exact, exact thing that we were told we wouldn’t get under the new government, the one that was elected under a banner of ‘change’. Here we are anyway.

What happens now seems to be increasingly clear, becoming clearer by the minute.

Andy Burnham has already launched his campaign to stand, as everyone knew he would.

Anyone else can join if they like - if they get the support of the 80 other MPs and various constituencies etc.

Nominations open on 9th July and will close on 16th. If there is more than one candidate, there will be a contest that would be over by the time Parliament returns from their summer hols in September.

A contest would give Burnham some time to flesh out policies, to debate his vision of the future. There are those who saw his Question Time performance and think he needs a bit of sharpening.

A contest would give some public backing to the idea, a sense of legitimacy. Without one, it feels like a classic politician tricky, an illusion of choice from an Oxford educated ‘elite’. It feels murky and grimey.

To have a contest, though, you need to have someone willing to be the other candidate. Someone would need to stand up and say ‘I oppose you, Andy Burnham. I have an alternative vision for the country - let’s have this out.’ Although, it is hard to challenge a vision when no vision has been set out.

Wes Streeting was supposed to be the front runner to be the runner up. He’s not going to do it. He’s said he’s backing Burnham.

Cynics out there might look at the state of things and suggest that jobs are up for grabs and the prizes available for joining Camp Burnham (worst festival ever) are much greater than those available for those outside the tent. Ambition is a terrible thing.

Are there even 80 Labour MPs who would, in the face of all this, back a candidate they don’t think would win? To signal your opposition to the inevitable leader might not be the wise choice for the egotist.

Right now, it looks like Andy Burnham will be the Prime Minister the day after nominations close. Friday 17th July will be Burnham Day.

Where does that leave us? Well, nobody knows. Nobody knows how he plans to take the country in a different, better direction. Like the police looking into a loo theft, we have nothing to go on.

There will be more sadness. There will be more time for tears. Next time things go wrong, will it be Señor Burnham at that podium relishing the return to his Northern heartlands or will he be able to weather the storm, somehow?

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Between 2020 and 2024, not one woman aged 20-24 died of cervical cancer. None. That hasn’t happened since we first started recording these things.

The official study said that approximately 199.5 lives have been saved. Approx 199.5. Not approx 200. Faaar too approx for them. That’s scientists for you, I guess.

The risk of mortality from cervical cancer is now almost zero for those under 30.

The HPV vaccine was introduced in schools in 2008. The vast majority have it in Year 8 (with later top ups). Since 2019, boys have also started having the vaccine.

Lovely people… science is coming. Woop.

Peace and love,

Tatton x

I wanna be the leader
I wanna be the leader
Can I be the leader?
Can I? I can?
Promise? Promise?
Yippee I'm the leader
I'm the leader

OK what shall we do?

Roger McGough

The whirligig of time

Before we get started on Labour leadership shenanigans, let’s have a tiny bit of context.

In April and May, we borrowed £9bn more than we did in April and May last year. Money is tight and finding savings is tough. The provisional armed forces settlement coming is so bad we’ve already lost two ministers over it. Labour MPs don’t want to vote for cuts.

These things will remain true for the rest of the year, regardless of which heavy head is wearing the crown.

In the early hours of this morning, the results of the Makerfield by-election were announced. Andy Burnham won by miles and miles and miles. He got more than 50% of all votes cast. Add Restore Britain’s vote to Reform’s vote and they’re not even close to challenging the King of the North.

Of course, it helps that the Reform candidate was truly, spectacularly awful.

Vote share from the Greens and the Lib Dems was just over 1%. In 2024, those parties shared 10. Burnham added 10% to the Labour result last time out.

There is an (admittedly dubious) argument that says if Greens and Lib Dems voted for their fave parties, and Restore Britain fans had gone with Reform, it would have been a 42% to 46% win.

What the BBC are calling a ‘resounding’ win came on the back of the worst possible Reform candidate (really, how did they do that? The wrongest of wrong’uns.) and tactical voting from Lib Dems and Greens.

Anyway, he’s there. He’ll be sworn in on Monday. A hard rain’s going to fall.

What happens next largely depends on our Prime Minister.

Should he wish to get this whole deal wrapped up next week, he could set a date to go - maybe the start of summer recess? - and allow Senor Burnham to saunter into Number 10 on a beautiful July afternoon.

Ah!! Breaking News!

As I write, Starmer himself has ruled that out. He says he ‘will stand’ in a contest. He’s ‘not going to walk away’. I’m leaving in the above paragraph because history will record that it was a really easy way out for him (and because I enjoyed calling the challenger ‘Senor Burnham’).

A contest it will be…

The rules are as follows: to challenge the sitting Labour leader, you need the backing of 20% of the party’s MPs. So that’s 81 (including yourself - you can choose to support someone else if you’ve already reached the 81). There could, in theory, be five different challenger candidates.

There are also complicated rules that mean you have to get support from constituencies and unions and things, too - but that shouldn’t be too arduous for any serious candidate.

The sitting leader, Starmer, doesn’t need anyone’s support and is automatically in the mix.

Unlike the Conservative Party, who you may remember whittled their candidates down to two, all the wannabe Prime Ministers are then on the ballot that goes out to the vote. This being Labour, it’s much more complicated than just Labour members. Various trade unions, co-operative and socialist societies also get votes.

Let’s pretend, then, that we have loads of MPs backing Mr B. The Streeting camp say that they’ve got the numbers to be involved. Al Carns (a decorated former Marine who resigned as Armed Forces Minister last week) wants to give it a go, for sure. Angela Rayner has been pretty quiet recently, but she’d love a bit of Number 10 action.

That would be four challengers and the PM off to win the votes of the country.

One question is timing - convention might suggest this is all wrapped up by the Party Conference on 27th September, but that is a tight turnaround. There is also the Mayor of Manchester by-election, probably on 30th July. A party in leadership turmoil might struggle to prevent a Reform win there.

The good news for our glorious leader is that the last time the Labour family was asked to vote, they voted overwhelmingly for him. There was no need for a second round count - he got 56.2% of all votes. The bad news for him is that his campaign focused on 10 pledges - almost all of which he has now broken to some extent.

I can’t see how he could possibly, possibly win that vote. He will say that he was elected in 2024 and should be allowed to finish the job. He will say that the Conservatives destroyed themselves by changing leaders. He will conveniently forget that when they swapped from Theresa May to Boris Johnson, they went on to win an early General Election by miles and miles. None of it will make a difference. If it goes to the members, he loses.

Are the members, though, as aligned to Burnham as the MPs? Maybe. Maybe not. David Miliband was the preferred candidate for MPs in 2010, with 81 MPs, while his brother Ed only had 63. Ed won. Burnham has stood twice, receiving 9% in that 2010 contest and 19% when he lost to Jeremy Corbyn in 2015.

It’s all a little unpredictable and a little personality driven. Very few people could pick a Burnham policy from a list, let alone the others. Perhaps Al Carns offers some ideological difference to the others, but the more centrist / right wing candidates haven’t smashed it in recent contests.

However this plays out, there are troubled waters to bridge. We need a leader to emerge, somehow unscathed by the inevitable mud-slinging. This isn’t about party - this is the Prime Minister. The events of the next few days / weeks / months will have long term, serious repercussions. Let’s hope we’re not going to be sunk by the ambition of a few men in Westminster.

Of course, this will all be dominated by leadership chat, but we should take a look at the plan nonetheless.

Monday - The Armed Forces Bill wraps up it’s Commons journey. Please note - this is not the armed forces settlement plan that the government say they’re going to share any minute now.

Tuesday - The Conservatives choose the topic today.

Wednesday - PMQs.

Not much after that.

Thursday - A General Debate on ‘Windrush Day 2026’ and ‘the diagnosis and treatment of PANS and PANDAS’, which are paediatric medical conditions which hit suddenly and hit hard.

Last week, lots of people responded to this little bit at the end. I must admit, I always assumed that nobody ever got this far down the email and I pretty much had a free hit to say whatever nonsense I wanted.

Now I know better, I resolve to make these final words eloquent, inspiring and definitely not just me ranting about cricket.

Be well x

Who we are

Simple Politics does things differently. We exist to help you have better conversations about the issues and the changes that matter. We do so by being clear, accurate and impartial. Also, light-hearted, engaging and occasionally (but not as often as we think) amusing.

It's not just about understanding the facts and the topics themselves but also looking at why different people hold the opinions they do. Those with whom you disagree aren't monsters. Understanding and respect are at the core of everything we do.

Our core offering will always be free.

Unfortunately, giving things away for free isn't a great business model. We've never been business people. But. We do need to make this work.

We do so through our amazing supporters, who keep us going by buying stuff in our shop and making monthly donations.

This podcast has been Produced by Stripped Media

If you want to know more about this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So many thoughts on this morning’s press conference and what the theatre of it tells us. As such, thought I’d send out a mini Monday missive.

Have a lovely week.

Peace and love,

Tatton x

Hit me on my beeper
Hit me on my beeper
Beeper beeper beeper beeper

Hit me on my beeper
Hit me on my beeper
Beeper beeper beeper beeper

The Count and Sinden

There’s some legacy for you….

The conversation about banning social media has been around for a long time now. Australia took the leap and the ban came in six months ago.

This has been a live conversation for a very long time.

This morning, though, we were all action. Dark, serious suit. Dark tie. This wasn’t all chill, re-boot Starmer. This is all action, all the time Starmer.

I was, of course, on the school run when he made his speech. It was too big, too urgent to fit into regular working hours. Sometimes when a genuis idea is on its way you just need to get out the way.

Anyway, the BBC had to cut away from their correspondent - the PM was speaking!

It was pretty clear that the room was full of both (worthy and brave) campaigners and (tedious) sycophants. I presume they’re the same one as attended his shitselved re-boot a couple of weeks ago.

I’m in the car, awaiting a barrage of facts and figures. What changes are coming. What aren’t coming. We got none of that. Not a single mention of a single social media in sight. He spoke for about 8 minutes .

He didn’t even give a timeframe until questions when he said ‘Spring 2027’.

Hang on. A year? Why are we doing this all 8am on a Monday? There is an open and welcome slot for you to talk to MPs at 3.30pm - that’s where policy should be announced! What does this 8am stuff mean? Well, he can be surrounded by people who cheer for him, I suppose.

Why now? What first attracted him to making a big announcement the week of Burnham’s election?

It’s all so transparently opportunistic. Last week, John Healy said that Startmer was both unwilling and unable to do anything at all.

A few short days later, he flies out the gates to announce that neither of this is true. The time for talking is over. He is going to absolutely do something he hopes will start in just short of a year’s time.

This is not about the policy. This is about the upcoming leadership content.

See that, Wes Streeting? I’m an action hero.

What’s that Andy Burnham? Bet you can’t make tired campaigners get out of bed to join you for an 8am press conference.

Hang on Al Carns? They didn’t teach you that in the Marines, eh?

Beneath it all is a real proposed change. No social media for under 16s. That’s specifically Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube (not YouTube Kids), Instagram, Facebook and X.

It’s also got bans in gaming - you can’t communicate with strangers and you can’t stream yourself playing. It sounds like Twitch is going to be banned.

Not banned? WhatsApp and Signal are fine. Presumably Substack, too.

We know how deeply damaging WhatsApp can be, but it’s not algorithm lead in the same way. You can share deeply horrible messages in secret - be they bullying, misogynistic, racist… pulling boys into the ‘manosphere’… videos of one of your peers being beaten up in the playground - but there is no infinite scroll.

There is a logic here. That intentionally addictive scroll has to go.

From my understanding, there are many, many young people in Australia using social media all the time. VPNs are really, really easy to use and the peer pressure to be on socials remains.

There is no question that these sites are damaging. They do real harm all the time, every day.

A blanket ban like this is evidence of a complete capitulation for the government - they haven’t been able to control the tech giants in any way. We’ve asked them very nicely and they have ignored us.

Something has to be done and maybe we’ve no choice but to go in hard with Australia +.

Will it return us to a utopia in which children play hopscotch on the streets and run errands for their neighbours? Probably not.

The genie is out the bottle and nobody knows what to do. We can only pull the levels we’ve got.

We’ll get more specifics and arguments through the day. In fact, I’m due to interview a minister in 20 mins. Time will tell just how ‘plus’ this Australia ‘plus’ will be.

What we do know, for absolute certainty, is what Starmer’s leadership campaign will look like.