What was it that took Mr Burnham’s fancy about the 1970s?
Was it the high inflation that made our current cost of living crisis look mild?
Was it government borrowing longer term costing 15.5%?
Was it the rate of pit and factory closures?
Was it the halving of UK car output 1972-82?
Was it the colossal losses of the nationalised industries led by coal, rail and steel?
Was it the brain drain as talent and investment left the country?
Was it the 83% higher tax rate on earnings and 98% on savings income?
Was it going to the IMF for a loan when the government ran out of money?
Was it areas in the hot summer of 1976 cut off from running water in their homes by nationalised water?
Was it Heath putting the country onto a three day working week thanks to a miners strike?
October 19, 2026
the music of that era was good. other than that it’s just laziness by politicians with little clue about the real world.
October 19, 2026
@iain gill – and they the Politicians still sit on their hands take the money and blame others for them not managing for the whole country. Political bigotry out of ‘hate’ and ideology is there only discipline
October 19, 2026
The unions were the masters of the universe and Heath lied when we joined the EU. The music wasn’t as good as the 60s but holidays abroad became more accessible.
I left in 77 and didn’t return until 99 when Bliar was busy dismantling our democracy in favour of unelected Quangos.
October 19, 2026
I had some Pink Floyd’s, Simon and Garfunkel, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer records and ABBA was hard to avoid but I had largely moved over to classical with my Music O level studying and my very poor violin, piano, keyboards, recorder and Guitar playing.
70s music:- not that much was actually from Manchester.
Rock, Hard Rock & Heavy Metal
• Led Zeppelin – Heavy blues-rock titans who ruled the decade with epics like Led Zeppelin IV.
• Pink Floyd – Masters of conceptual and psychedelic rock who released The Dark Side of the Moon.
• The Rolling Stones – Continued their reign as the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” with classics like Exile on Main St..
• Black Sabbath – Pioneers of heavy metal who defined dark, thunderous doom-rock with Paranoid.
• Queen – Combined glam rock, opera, and hard-rock wizardry on albums like A Night at the Opera.
• The Who – Transformed arena rock and experimental opera with Who’s Next and Quadrophenia.
• AC/DC – High-voltage Australian hard rock anchored by Angus and Malcolm Young.
• Deep Purple – Heavy rock innovators behind defining tracks like “Smoke on the Water”.
• Aerosmith – America’s quintessential blues-rock swagger machine of the ’70s.
• Kiss – Iconic face paint, pyrotechnics, and stadium-rock anthems like “Detroit Rock City”.
• Van Halen – Revolutionized heavy metal guitar virtuosity with their 1978 self-titled debut.
• Judas Priest – Sculpted the leather-and-studs blueprint of heavy metal speed and twin guitars.
• Thin Lizzy – Melodic Irish twin-lead hard rock led by Phil Lynott.
• Blue Öyster Cult – Occult-tinged, intelligent hard rock and heavy riffs.
Soft Rock, Country Rock & Pop-Rock
• Fleetwood Mac – Defined mid-70s soft-rock and pop perfection with the blockbuster album Rumours.
• Eagles – Masters of Southern California country-rock and record-breaking harmony.
• ABBA – Swedish pop-disco royalty who dominated global airwaves.
• The Band – Roots-rock icons whose historic chapter closed with The Last Waltz.
• Heart – Rocked the Pacific Northwest with a fierce blend of acoustic folk and hard-rock power.
• Cheap Trick – Rockford, Illinois power-pop geniuses behind Cheap Trick at Budokan.
Progressive & Art Rock
• Genesis – Progressive rock storytellers fronted by Peter Gabriel (and later Phil Collins).
• Yes – Virtuosic prog-rock architects of complex epics like Close to the Edge.
• Rush – Canadian progressive power-trio combining sci-fi concepts with hard-rock precision.
• Steely Dan – Sophisticated jazz-rock and yacht-rock perfectionists.
• Roxy Music – Art-rock and glam-adjacent stylists led by Bryan Ferry.
October 19, 2026
LL,
Any PPE graduates in their ranks?
October 19, 2026
you can do music GCSE nowadays with electric guitar as your main instrument, and indeed other rock band instruments and music. which is one of the few improvements in the world since our day. same at A level.
October 20, 2026
Music and RE were two subjects that did not matter at school if you wanted to get on in life.
Same with art. I was very good at drawing and painting but I did not take any exams.k
October 20, 2026
I enjoyed my Art O level, I wish I had photos of the final exam entries, sadly it was before the days that was common.
Music I had no chance, it was all classical music, and orchestral instruments, and kids who were getting expensive outside tutition.
October 19, 2026
Blimey Philip,
You ought to apply for a job on Sky Arts.
October 19, 2026
Was it the triumph of irrational, socialist, spitful envy, big government, 98% taxes and economic self harm over reason, logic, freedom of choice and what actually works?
October 19, 2026
and you didn’t mention Stax, Atlantic artists from late 60s soul music evolving to Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Commodores, the Jacksons….
October 19, 2026
at least we had a coherent society then I suppose, and young kids could play in the park all day
October 19, 2026
A post about Full Employment, Homelessness and Begging (being confined to traditional tramps) and the ethnic makeup of the country( less ghetto, less tower of Babel) in the 1970s does not fit in with the whinging posts on here.
In any case it was deleted.
October 19, 2026
In the 1970s Bernard Manning used to say ‘They can’t stop us laughing.’ Nowadays they just cancel any act they disapprove of.
Manning’s TV appearances used a lot of material. Jokes, unlike songs, cannot be repeated constantly and get a similar response.
I enjoyed Manning v Esther Rantzen on Parkinson.
October 19, 2026
Because he was never there is the obvious answer. At 7 years of age do you really comprehend the realities?
October 19, 2026
He’s trying to appeal to young, left leaning votera who also have no memory of the absolute chaos the idiot union leaders inflicted on the country and their members. My cousin was in the print trade in London. They were out for weeks at a time but his (very clever) wife worked out that the pay rises they negotiated never covered the loss of earnings. Not quite so clever!
October 19, 2026
Was it Harold Wilson, the numskull away in the Cloud(Morning Cloud) Ted Heath or was James Callaghan a Socialist Decade of destruction.
The days of Socialism
• 1970 Dockers’ Strike: A national walkout by port and dock workers over pay and conditions.
• 1971 Postal Workers Strike: A 7-week strike by the Union of Post Office Workers bringing mail services to a halt.
• 1972 Miners’ Strike: A major strike by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) that severely depleted coal stocks, declare a state of emergency.
• 1973–1974 Miners’ Strike and Three-Day Week: introduction of a Three-Day Week to conserve electricity.
• 1978–1979 Winter of Discontent: A wave of private and public sector strikes erupted after the Labour government of James Callaghan imposed a 5% limit on pay rises to combat inflation.
• Ford Strike (September 1978): Car plant workers walked out and secured a 17% pay increase, breaking the government’s policy.
• Day of Action (January 22, 1979): Roughly 1.25 million public sector workers—including NHS staff, garbage collectors, and school workers—staged a 24-hour national strike.
History is for learning not repeating. Maybe that’s why History is of the agenda.
October 19, 2026
We also had the sectarian war waged by the IRA.
Yes it was blissful in comparison with what Burn’em heralds.
October 19, 2026
The sectarianism was on the other side. Gerrymandering in Derry- that the government ignored.
‘A protestant parliament for a protestant people.’
Sir James Craig.
LA woman (The Doors 1971) :-
Why do you mostly get everything wrong in your posts here?
October 19, 2026
It’s Londonderry.
The Protestants of Ireland were driven out apart from the 6 counties.
I was there – were you?
October 19, 2026
Being there does not make it right.
No Catholics employed by Derry/Stroke City council.
I rest my case.
You are an embittered woman from a world that had thankfully moved on.
October 20, 2026
On the BBC they always seem to get both names in when reporting anything there.
October 19, 2026
“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man” is a famous adage commonly attributed to Aristotle or St. Ignatius Loyola (the founder of the Jesuit order).
So who got to Burnham before 7 and indoctrinated his young and limited brain. A brain rather more interested in poetry and non fiction than reality it seems. We know who got at the Milibands Ralph Miliband (born Adolphe Miliband; 1924–1994) a highly prominent sociologist, Marxist intellectual, and university professor who was a key figure in the mid-20th-century British “New Left” movement.
Should religious indoctrination of minors be classed as child abuse? The BBC does it all the time – especially with the CO2 fiery hell climate religion and benefits of generally low skilled immigration, a large state and the evils of the British empire.
October 19, 2026
Ah yes! – the days of the ‘Everybody out!’ call ringing across the factories of England….
But the music and the early to bed times – not all bad.
October 19, 2026
MT,
Miriam Karlin in ‘The Rag Trade’ had that as her catchphrase too.
October 19, 2026
IB,
None of that bothered me. I actually enjoyed the three day week.
October 19, 2026
If the trains were on strike, I could drive to South Wimbledon, park for free, and catch the Northern line into The City. The train service was better
Engineering works were not a major disruption. Fares were more reasonable. I could also park in roads on the fringe of zone 1 for free, although I did have parking space at work. Now I cannot even drive around Kingston. Road works and 20 mph speed limits make it unpleasant – even outside the rush hour.
Most other strikes did not affect me. Ford & British Leyland & Chrysler were still manufacturing in the UK and thus providing lots of jobs. The devil makes work for idle hands, as they say.
October 20, 2026
It’s ‘free’ or ‘for nothing’.
October 19, 2026
The out of depth ‘little man’ is all at sea without a brain. He preaches ‘hate’, the ‘hate’ for the nation and its people in the name of Socialism. He will fight the nation and its people rather stand up for them, he will impoverish them in the name of Socialism rather than release them to reach potential. It is only about his very personal version of Socialism that is about him, him personally – the self of the out of depth ego
October 19, 2026
Perhaps because those of his ideological standing had a lot of control??
Hard line Unions were able to hold the country to ransom and the workers too.
October 19, 2026
Burnham was born January 7, 1970.and was 9 when Thatcher came to power first time. I was then old enough to vote voted Tory in Cambridge and that was the first not time in my life that my vote game me the MP I voted for, After that living in Bloomsbury and Camden, Hampstead, Highgate it was a wasted vote.
So he will not remember much of 70s though Liverpool was one of the worse hit areas under Heath, Wilson, Callaghan…he should remember the recovery from this dire mess under Thatcher and the total disasters of Blair and Brown with their evil & idiotic wars on on a lie, their love of the EU, their deluded climate alarmism, and disastrous devolution and constitutional legal reforms, the Supreme Court, their banking crash, quangos – when he was adult.
All rather had to explain did he have a deluded left mother or dad like the deluded Milibands. Was he perhaps reading too much fiction and poetry to gain his place at Cambridge? So not noticing the realities of the 70s, 80s and the Cameron through to Sunak era.
Some deluded female ex Tory MP on GB news yesterday – said the Tories were about to tackle the out of control immigration when Sunak was kicked out off office – no dear Sunak chose to resign six months early in the certain knowledge the Tories would get destroyed? He surely wanted to be kicked out. Why not hold on and deliver for a change ditch the ECHR, control the borders have growth policies, ditch net zero… but no he stuck to Con-socialism, threw in the Towel and together with Cameron, May, Boris buried all trust in the party.
October 19, 2026
Michelle
Your comment probably near the mark, beer and sandwiches in No 10 for the Trade Union Leaders consulted by Government at almost every turn, and perhaps his parents and others gave him the impression that all problems were down to the greedy rich capitalists at the time.
I have to say that life was much more simple and less complicated for everyone in those days, compared to life now, where even Government Ministers do not even seem to know or understand the tax rules. !
October 19, 2026
In my experience almost no one understands the tax rules (even the people who wrote them) often the tribunals get over ruled by the high courts and the high court get over ruled by the court of appeal… all very expensive and time consuming. Plus the complexity and uncertaintly is hugely damaging if you want to encourage investment. A great way to create every more well paid parasitic & unproductive jobs and pointless activity though.
October 19, 2026
There is a young left Frenchwoman all over the internet, astonished that the migrants she supported and was active in bringing to France, loot her shop.
She apparently thought that siding with the invaders bought her immunity from their rampage. The ladies in Piddington have empathy – at last!
While the ‘mostly peaceful protesters’ (I quote the BBC) destroyed Marianne, this very pale European woman is becoming the Face of France, her expression as reality dawns is classic.
I’m afraid that we will all soon join Burnham and think fondly of the 1970’s when the IRA bombed us, the Government robbed us and we queued at standpipes in the burning heat for water.
Everything is relative.
October 19, 2026
If the function of the right-wing press is to oppose the Labour government, we should be careful to fact check their statements, which are often false and which quote story lines deigned to frighten folk of the consequences of voting for them
A case in point has been the assertions in the media earlier this year that Rachel Reeves was “plotting” to hit private pensions. We were assured that the lady would reduce the 25% tax free lump sum that can be withdrawn. As a result, hundreds of thousands of folk withdrew their 25% in full. Now that the lady has denied any intention to do this, these people now want to put their 25% back into their pensions so that it can continue to grow
HMRC have been forced to advise that due to their rules, any attempt to do so will mean their 25% will be taxed. The moral of this is do not, under any circumstances, believe predictions in the right-wing press of increased taxation – they have an ulterior political motive. Just like the non-existent “blackouts” which are going to be caused by net zero every winter
October 19, 2026
SG
There were articles in the Guardian pushing the idea of taxing or reducing pension lump sums.
Maybe you missed the left wing media doing this and Rachel refusing to deny it.
October 19, 2026
Do you think the Treasury should not fly these balloons?
I doubt even the left wing MSM would make up the stories.
October 19, 2026
Like playing chess against the government – but the government can keep changing the rules mid game.
October 19, 2026
I remember going on holiday in the 1970s and my father had to take his passport to the post office and have his FX purchase stamped in the back. By the time i first travelled on my own, shortly after Mrs Thatcher’s victory, i was able to change whatever I wanted – though i didn’t have much. I seem to remember there were ‘experts’ warning ahead of that deregualtion that sweeping away FX controls was a very risky. In retrospect (in fact within days of it happening I believe) it was quite obvious that the restriction made no more sense than did the requirement to produce official permission to buy a train ticket in the Soviet Union. But of course it did give the govt and the blob much more control of the population.
October 19, 2026
No, none of those reasons. It was simply because for most of the 1970s Labour politicians occupied the top jobs and got the perks that went with them.
October 19, 2026
Good morning.
It was all and none of those things. But one thing I am sure the PM wishes to do, is bring us back into the EEC / EU without a vote.
October 19, 2026
Why, because he was a child at the time, and has no real recollection of all of the elements that were in play at the time, most kids in a loving family look back at their childhood with fond memories, because most of us have good memories of the simple pleasures and friendships in life at that time.
Yes money may have been tight, but the park was free, you could play football in the street, and a second hand bike was your transport for adventure and discovery.
Your knowledge as a small child is usually limited to your local surroundings and friends and neighbours at the time, as you grow older your experiences usually widen, and you become more aware of the real World !
October 19, 2026
That’s nothing, Lord Redwood. Just wait until the politburo resurrects War Communism, which used violent grain requisitioning from peasants, directly causing widespread peasant revolts and the devastating Russian famine of 1921–1922, not to mention banning rival political parties, and establishing the Cheka, secret police, to launch the “Red Terror” against political dissidents. Then there was the social disruption and collapse of infrastructure which seems to be already in progress in Britain: millions of refugees, orphaned children, and demobilized soldiers; overwhelmed crumbling municipal services, transportation networks, and health systems.
Socialists always blame their eternal failures on others. That is one thing that will never change.
October 19, 2026
I could get to work in my sports car in 20 mins.
The health service was run by Nurses and worked well.
The NHS had less layers and communication was good.
Competition was less and confined to sports.
People in general were cooperative.
There was space all around.
Going on holiday locally meant you could go to St Ives or Devon and the beaches weren’t overcrowded.
We had choices of jobs and usually managed to get them.
October 19, 2026
MBJ,
True, particularly the jobs line. No such thing as unpaid interns in those days.
October 19, 2026
Proper politicians had no use for ‘interns’.
October 20, 2026
Or SPADS.
October 19, 2026
MBJ,
Things seemed to getting better too. We got more paid holidays at work. New Years Day was also made a public holiday for sassenachs and the trend of running Christmas Day into New Year’s Day as a long break began.
We got more consumer durables over the decade. People were more optimistic.
Defined benefits pensions were standard before Gordon Brown effectively killed them off.
October 21, 2026
The general quality of life in Britain peaked in 1976. There are some studies reporting this.
October 19, 2026
Was it the lack of 24 hours scrutiny?
October 19, 2026
Because he’s a thinly disguised Communist.
October 19, 2026
I am convinced Burnham idealises the 1970s, because that was his first decade growing up from a baby to a 10 year old. During that time in anyone’s life things always seem happier and settled. It is only when we realise the tooth fairy isn’t real and the visit from Santa isn’t predicated on being good or bad after all.
Most of us who remember the issues of that decade know what a disaster it was, Burnham was just a child and doesn’t understand what he missed. Even his urgency to take the UK back into the EEC, as it was when he was in nappies and now morphed into the EU since Maastricht was adopted by John Major, can be seen as simply childish imagining/memory of the time he was becoming self aware.
He refuses to see the Invasion of Spanish Ceuta by tens of thousands of invaders as anything to do with the EU. He refuses to see the endless riots in France and the loss of personal freedoms there as anything to do with the EU. He refuses to see the deindustrialisation of Germany and the UK is anything to do with the EU Net Zero mandate
We have a serious problem on our hands with Burnhams EU fixation, some might call it a severe case of Stockholm syndrome.
October 19, 2026
The revelation that civil servants have been fact checking and writing articles for the BBC’s pompous accuracy department Verify proves what most journalists already knew. That Verify is a self-serving BBC shill that only the very gullible would trust an inch. Shut it down!
A Tweet by Kevin O’Sulivan.
The BBC is patently a blatant propaganda department especially on Climate Alarmism, open borders, the EU, big government, DEI woke lunacy…
October 19, 2026
@Lifelogic – in a sort of way it was lucky that those able to ‘think’ could se through the rubbish they churned out. The Unlucky bit they were able to play into the hands of the noisy freeloaders that have time on their hands to agitate, tear society down continue Blair’s message to his Kingdom.
The BBC has paused a placement scheme for civil servants after The Telegraph revealed Whitehall staff were tasked with writing articles and fact-checking contentious issues.
I guess that little earner is now done outside of working hours
October 19, 2026
And we are often forced to fund this drivel being fed to us.
October 19, 2026
He hasn’t said he wants to go back to the seventies but that everything since then has been bad for the country. He’d probably argue that socialism has never been done properly, just as we would argue the same about Brexit. Diametrically opposite and irreconcilable perceptions of reality.
October 19, 2026
It was a time of anarchy – unions were striking for the most pathetic reasons and dragging the country down and down. Proof if it were needed that socialist unions were/are the enemy of this country.
Burnham wants the days back when unions had the ability to bring the country to a standstill – he may have a fancy for the pop music of the day which cheered us up, but it was the country on the brink that anarchists desired.
I have no love of the unions – they overplayed their hand too often and they still keep labour out of the debtor’s courts. If this country is ever to escape the 1970’s then we have to neuter the unions.
The following would be a sensible start:
1 – we legislate to reduce unions war-chests on a regular basis by making them pay money back to members when it reaches a certain level;
2 – we scrap national bargaining and bring in annual assessments for all state related employees to stop the awful power unions hold over us.
October 19, 2026
It is because the 1970s were dreadful that Mr Burnham has his “vision” for the country to revisit this decade. Mr. Burnham is a socialist, in fact even a Fabian, and socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor. So he wants to return to a dysfunctional state intervention in markets, bring about maximum state ownership and control, continue high state spending to justify high taxation and maximise trade union activity to bring about another “Winter of Discontent”. “Lovely Jubbly” as Del Boy would say.
October 19, 2026
@Original Richard – to ‘rule’ you have to divide. The Socialist moto
October 19, 2026
O/T but related to Sir John’s 17/10 post, a very titillating article from Sam Freedman, 14/10 ‘Drowning in slop’ about how AI is being used or could be used in government (and elsewhere).
October 19, 2026
All good questions for the PM. But I think it’s a lack of intelligence and immaturity. Burnham doesn’t seem to have grown up since his student days. In wanting to take us back into the EU, the PM shows a complete refusal to face the facts and contempt for democracy.
To succeed, the UK needs a PM who looks forward, not backwards. A PM who cuts government spending to reduce taxes so the economy can grow. A PM who understands that cheap, reliable energy drives economic success, not blind faith in Net Zero. A PM who understands that defence spending comes before welfare.
We needed a tough PM who would face facts and take tough decisions to lead the UK forward; instead, we got a Mayor who wants to be liked and sees the past through rose-tinted glasses!
October 19, 2026
@Keith from Leeds – We need a Parliament that is willing to work with the People and the Nation. Continuing to have those that want to fight the Country, destroy the Country for very personal ideological reasons is the very reason things seem out of ‘kilter’ . It cant be just the UK ‘hating’ Burnham as the majority of Parliament support him, the majority of Parliament wants to get back to taking orders by the unelected unaccountable elsewhere. Yes he is drumming up the hate, playing to their desires, but its the whole of Parliament that needs replacing, replacing with those we select.
October 19, 2026
While I agree the 1970s were the worst political decade for Britain (the 1980s were the best) of my lifetime though the 2020s are mounting a big challenge for that position, I emphasise the one thing on Lord Redwood’s list that should have been a transformative beacon (but through collective stupidity has not been) was the three day week which showed that even in the most adverse conditions of power cuts and no pre-planning that we could do O.K. with just working a 3 day week – so why are employed people still working a standard 5 day week and not doubled their leisure time and time off from 2 days to 4 days a week?
October 19, 2026
@Geoffrey Berg – you could deduce from what you suggest is the country and the people were more resilient, more self-reliant, allowed to think and do. It is that part that has been removed with the stupidity of Parliament and their continued attacks on the people and the nation. There have been Putin style situations, Iran type annoyances throughout history but we have never had to deal with the battle solely within, the battle to impose a personal view of Socialism and Rule that the majority in our Parliament has supported before.
October 19, 2026
Working people probably could work a 3 day week, if so much of their income wasn’t taxed away and wasted before and after they could benefit from their earnings.
How far through the year do you have to work before your money goes to you and not to the government?
October 19, 2026
It’s very interesting Burnham’s obsession with pushing everything local, is it to create more “board member” places for the over-credentialed to occupy at great public expense ?
It probably is.
The SNP are having a very different conversation if they become an independent nation state that issues their own sovereign currency.
Can the council’s become centrally funded ?
The MONOPOLY ISSUER of the new Scottish currency keystrokes the money to councils ?
They could, but what would be the point of local politics then? The councils would just become branches of the civil service.
There are a few problems.
Firstly councils can’t raise the taxation they require to undertake what they were elected to do.
Secondly they are asked by central government to undertake actions locally that are really a central government issue. The classic one is recycling.
That is something local politics needs to do more of or it can be centrally funded by the MONOPOLY ISSUER of the new currency.
We need a rethink of what elements are discretionary services that should be under the full control of local politics, and then allow councils to raise whatever taxes they need to fund those discretionary services – with the budget put to the people every year.
Everything else should be delivered by LOCAL sets of civil servants based upon national priorities determined by the Scottish government. Keystroked into existence by the MONOPOLY ISSUER of the currency.
That should include education, the NHS, social care and the roads etc etc.
It all boils down to what services will be tax payer funded at the council level. What services will be centrally funded using an index finger and computer keyboard and keystroking money to local councils.
It’s a very interesting debate.
October 19, 2026
@Derek Henry – pushing things local would be a good idea. But that is not what he will allow, he holds the purse strings, the flow of money, do as I say or the money stops.
Even now where councils that receive the same proportional share as other, manage to do better than others they are ordered to squander or loose it.
The pseudo independence is about foisting total liability and blame on those not in a position to affect it. Its a sloping shoulders project.
Personally, I would like all counties to have a similar independency and responsibility as the US States. Then the country would get moving while some would fly ahead, yes other would fail – but it would never be 100% fail on the back of one persons ego
October 20, 2026
Ian,
I think you are right , However…
If every council is just tax payer funded …
Or
Every country is like a US state which is just tax payer funded
a) Might as well join the Euro because that is how the Eurozone works.
As those countries gave up their right to keystroke their own currencies into existence. Every Euro they need is either collected as taxes or borrowed. Those countries are exactly like a county council already.
That’s why it would have been complete madness to join the Euro.
We are the issuer of our own currency . It never works like that here apart from at the council level. The MONOPOLY ISSUER of the £ is not a county council. We are a full monetary sovereign country.
b) If every council was just tax payer funded it would create a race to the bottom.
Councils can’t raise the taxation they require to undertake what they were elected to do as it is.
Slashing taxes just to encourage a business to move into your area will make it worse. We have all seen the results of this right across America. It doesn’t work. The very last thing you want is a race to the bottom.
It’s a very interesting debate.
What SHOULD be funded by tax payers at the council level.
What SHOULD be funded centrally by the MONOPOLY ISSUER of the £.
There’s a real opportunity to reduce taxes at the council level if done right. Take the tax burden off councils and still get things done by other things being centre funded.
In my opinion we need a council review. Look at properly.
But first we have to admit that the MONOPOLY ISSUER of the £ is NOT funded by taxes. Like everybody says it is. Councils are but the ISSUER of the £ definitely is NOT.
That’s why it’s such an interesting debate.
October 19, 2026
As for Burnham ‘s Brexit shambles ….Dearie me.
What do you make of it John ?
Trump’s new tariffs have quite rightly sparked outrage from economists, policymakers, and commentators. The standard argument is that they are protectionist, inflationary, and bad for global trade.
But there’s an irony here: the European Union has had its own Common Customs Tariff (CCT) for years, yet it rarely gets the same criticism. As Brexit reaches its five-year mark, it’s worth examining the double standards in how tariffs are discussed—especially who they benefit and who they hurt.
Trump has slapped a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on Chinese goods, citing concerns about illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Critics say these measures threaten free trade and could spark trade wars.
However, the EU’s CCT—which imposes standard tariffs on imports into the bloc to protect its industries—rarely faces the same backlash.
Why are Trump’s tariffs considered reckless while the EU’s are just part of the system? Is it political bias? Or a failure to understand how tariffs actually work?
Tariffs make imports more expensive, meaning consumers and businesses in the importing country foot the bill. Yet, when it comes to Brexit, we often hear that the UK “pays” tariffs and other non-tariff barriers on exports to the EU—when, in reality, it will be EU consumers who end up footing the bill.
This inconsistency is telling. When Trump imposes tariffs, the media focuses on how they will raise costs for American consumers.
However, with Brexit, the focus does a complete 180 and shifts to how UK exporters suffer while ignoring the cost to EU consumers. This selective storytelling distorts the accurate picture of how tariffs work.
This selective , incorrect story telling was at the very heart of project fear if we ever left the EU. Nobody has picked up on it ?
The absolute truth is 95% of us just went about our daily routine and never even noticed we had left. That is a fact !
None of project fear came true…..
The shelves weren’t empty
The £ is alive and well even though we were promised it would be finished.
Our exporters still export
Our “real terms of trade ” which is what matters most has improved.
In my opinion, we are not highlighting the media hypocrisy that exists between Trumps Tariffs and the EU tariffs. The media are talking out of both sides of the same mouth and saying different things ?
Reply Good comment. I have been highlighting the damage of re imposing tariffs if we re joined the Customs Union. Lib Dem policy of wanting Custom Union is particularly stupid, imposing more taxes on UK consumers.
October 19, 2026
I was 26 when celebrating New Year 1970.Travel throughout UK car/bus/plane/train hassle-free,courteous staff
and well-behaved passengers and drivers.UK international trade in healthy credit.As the decade progressed the
proverbial started to hit the fan and not all the reasons were home caused(politically or social upheaval).
UK ended the decade on a healthy recovery path.I wish I could be as confident cerebrating new year 2027.
In all likelihood I’ll retire to bed and drop off to the “somewhere over the rainbow” optimism.
October 19, 2026
Of course, it could be because he’s a badly educated thicko who’s rise to the top job by BS skills. Otherwise, why leave him open to accusations of clear lying?
October 19, 2026
As he was born in 1970 he doesn’t personally remember them politically, he’s just been radicalised by the Labour Party’s subsequent mythologising of them. Similar to his assertion that all our current problems are the fault of Margaret Thatcher – it’s an act of Labour faith rather than being based on any objective assessment.
October 20, 2026
He wasn’t there.
Nor was I. I upped sticks and worked in Dubai between ’77 and ’80 where British Contractors were demonstrating that not everyone suffered from the British Disease.
Work hard, Play hard and get the job done.
October 21, 2026
Agree with all comments as I lived through them. Why don’t you do a piece on what came after when Lady Thatcher had to take extreme action to right the country which included interest rates of 17% at one stage on my mortgage. The rates fluxtuated each month between 15% and 17% at one stage. It was a nightmare and everyone had to work their socks off to keep a house. By me I had people doing moonlight flits as they went bankrupt virtually overnight. The current lot haven’t seen anything yet as the national debt is much larger than then so there is no where to go except the IMF again.