Public Spending

  • Policing is a big business

    It’s startling how many people have complaints about Policing, and equally how much work the Police actually do.

    However, there is a huge shortfall in activity that makes sense of the naysayers, and dwarfs the dedicated activity in comparison.

    It’s believed, according to private research, that a full scale Police force that covers the UK would cost in the region of £70 billion to £80 billion a year.

    This is a cost that involves use of high tech equipment, sufficient ongoing training, and administrative efforts to make sense of the aftermath of crime, and criminal activity.

    The lack of this high level of funding is indicative of poor planning and gross misalignment of public understanding and practical realities in a modern economy.

    It’s also a legacy of insufficient notions of safety, and a confusion of terms as it relates to political standpoint and the purpose of a Policing force with a socially contractual obligation.

    The professionalisation of UK society has to start with the enlargement of the Policing obligation to cover the many, not just the few.

  • Prisons are solutions, not a crisis

    The scathing Independent Review of Prison Capacity, published earlier this month, suggested a long run of Conservative failures during 2010 and 2024. The conclusion of fourteen years of Conservative rule is suggested to be a single open prison, or its equivalent.

    “The net effect is that fewer than 500 places have been added to total operational capacity between 2010 and 2024.”

    This is not reflective of the rhetoric and campaigning that Conservatives undertook at a similar time. It’s also not sympathetic to those MP’s in leadership who formerly chose to prioritise it. It’s an indictment of its overall purpose.

    The first challenge is to overcome a manufactured crisis driven by inferior, often youthful interests. The second is to ignore an immature, felt version of wisdom and to follow the needs of the Prison estate. It’s far more important than a village people mindset.

  • Prime Minister’s Questions (2 July)

  • Labour’s spending splurge (Finance Report)

  • Prime Minister’s Questions

  • Prime Minister’s Questions

  • Chancellor falls back on promise

    It’s not good news for Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP (Leeds West and Pudsey/Labour). The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates her Department borrowed over £150 billion in the last year. It’s 15.8% more than the year before it.

    Her promise to end reliance on borrowing is falling flat. It also shows analysts in the Treasury are falling behind. It’s not a good look for Labour. Neither is it promotional material for a Civil Service said to be good at doing it. This begs to differ.

  • As spending goes up, so do defences

    The legacy stakes are high at this point. A Premier’s term is his or hers to own, but there’s always worry it won’t go well. The belief in a set of policies can get punctured by disappoints – and defeat.

    Sir Keir Starmer’s Plan For Change, a bold initiative from a Premier who got past his first personal test of ridding the Labour party of antisemitism, is his game changing stab at ultimate power.

    The announcement yesterday of an historic funding increase for the Armed services is appropriate, but it’s also a step into Tory heartland. It’s where defence has often also mattered more than not.

    Labour’s landslide victory is becoming a profitable policy point scoring exercise. It’s a spin doctor’s military drill, taking in many targets. A testy change of focus, it also means Starmer is on a warpath.

  • A farm tax infowar

    In a post on X, the National Farmers Union has suggested a proposed family farm tax will affect 75%, not 27%, of working farms in the UK.

    @NFUtweets – X

    Meanwhile, the government has communicated their intention to use the tax as a way to target wealthy landowners to fix public services.

    However, it’s a state of affairs caused by cabinet ministers and their public servants, and not by any private landowner.

    @UKLabour – X

    This type of reasoning suggests mismanagement is corrected by creating – or raising – taxes, and not by fixing the rotten processes at the heart of government.

  • Gov works on border security

    The government has increased funding for Border Force as it fights illegal trafficking. It’s pledged an extra £58 million to its budget, to resource equipment, improve data use, and cooperation.

    In related news, nearly 10,000 deportations have been achieved since the government took office. It includes forced and volunteer returns, with some being criminals, and others with no right to stay.

  • Labour’s Labour budget

    It’s a great thing to front a budget, but not if you’re the Conservatives sitting on the opposite bench.

    Yesterday was a bad day for Tories here, there, and everywhere because of the sight of Rachel Reeves MP (Leeds West and Pudsey/Labour).

    @UKLabour – X

    She’s new at the despatch box as Chancellor, but an old hat at explaining difficult truths. She put a lot of fight into it.

    The budget involves a lot of Labour touch points, like breakfast clubs, schools, and pensions. It’s a shopping list with a popular touch.

  • Reeves’ first budget (National News Report)

  • Labour’s stability rule

    In a budget announced today by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves MP (Leeds West and Pudsey/Labour), a “stability rule” is introduced to reign in public spending and take back control of government finances.

    “The stability rule (which is the government’s fiscal mandate) requires that the current budget must be in surplus in 2029-30, until 2029-30 becomes the third year of the forecast period…Balancing the current budget means that the government’s day-to-day spending is met by revenues and so ensures that, over the medium term, borrowing is only for investment. This means future generations will not be burdened with the costs of public services today.”

    It means in future, if adhered to, any public service will be funded by income recovered by the government rather than by more and more borrowing, which is already beyond our ability to repay.

  • What a budget means

  • Gov hacks at welfare

    Labour are to take winter fuel payments off pensioners in an attempt to balance its books. A vote in Parliament today resulted in a denial of a delay meaning millions of pensioners will now go without it.

    This is despite policies from Labour that apparently reduce energy costs by government spending in the longterm. The issue is why there’s an imminent loss rather than when its policies are implemented.

    A graphic produced by Labour

    A poll by YouGov shows low levels of confidence in government to get taxes and spending right. Just 12% believe the government has the correct approach while 25% say both are too low.