If you are running a big commercial enterprise and it is performing badly the CEO or chairman calls in the directors running underperforming units and works with them on improvements. If a senior person fails to improve and results remain poor they might be fired and replaced with someone better. If the group’s policy and requirements of the underperforming unit turn out to be unrealistic or unhelpful they are changed. No one being called in to discuss performance would be surprised as there would be gentle escalation of concern about performance before tougher action was taken.
What a good chairman or CEO would not do is to decide to change half the top people around on the same day, giving them immediately different jobs they do not understand. It would not help to swap the International Sales Director with the Group Secretary, or the Commercial Director with the Head of IT. You would not normally send one to run a completely new unit or operation without some training and a hand over period. Promotions and demotions are best tied into the regular performance reviews and the career development work done by the Personnel or Human Resources Department.
This recent government reshuffle changes too many people and was done in a rush. The PM had to replace his Deputy. This provided an opportunity for a good news limited reshuffle where a few got promoted and one new person could enter the government. Instead there also firings and moves that could look like demotions. Why reward someone the PM clearly thinks has failed at Home Secretary with the Foreign Office? How will her replacement smash the gangs and prosecute the urban rapists? Why remove the Business Secretary who has pledged big taxpayer support for steel but has not released his financial business plan for it? Shouldn’t he have been asked to complete the task? Why move the Justice Secretary who has so far failed to solve the prison shortage and who let a lot of criminals out early?
The PM says he wants delivery. He has just lost a Housing Secretary whose signal failure to boost housebuilding went unchallenged, a Home Secretary who watched as illegal boat migrant numbers soared, a Foreign Secretary who needlessly gave away Chagos and sacks of cash, a Business Secretary who presided over a devastating rate of industrial closures and a Work and Pensions Secretary who failed to pass her welfare Bill and watched as benefit recipients and unemployment soared. What action during the year did the PM take to review their lack of progress? What action to improve? What has he told their replacements to do differently? Why are the new people the same people that just failed in their old jobs?
Key areas where we need a change of approach are net zero policy and the interpretation of international law. The two key figures in charge of these remain in post.
September 6, 2025
Don’t worry, this reshuffle is just a symptom of their earlier than scheduled demise. The new appointees are people who the day before yesterday did not know what they were doing, now moved to positions where they know even less. The only constant are the Civil Service who will continue on their chosen course irrespective of a collection of politicians promoted way beyond their pay grade.
Fear not, the real action is occuring at the NEC in Birmingham, just as it was in Congress earlier in the week.Government is just noise, off stage left. The real play continues to command the attention of a growing audience.
September 6, 2025
The real news is the appointment of the new Home Secretary . This signals to the country thatc2 tier policing is official policy and no action will be taken on the small boats invasion.
I’ve racked my brains to think of any other country who would appoint a player from the other team as captain.
2TK has just signalled to the world and America in particular that this country is a joke.
Time for a word with the generals i think
September 6, 2025
I can only assume that the country is living under a government of occupation and for some time has ceased to be sovereign. Could it be so?
September 7, 2025
Starmer’s Gang hates Britain, hates its history and hates its foundations in Christianity and elements of Judaism. (Some Ministers Ed) and many of the Gang’s stooges in the courts like Justice (named e,g. Ed) are Fabians who believe nation states should be abolsihed and replaced by an international socialist order as envisaged by the socialists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Starmer is a self confessed Trotskyite.
Starmer’s Gang is not aiming to improve the situation but to worsen it, to destroy Britain as a distinct culture that determines its governing arrangements for itself. This is what it is doing. There can be no doubt. So yes, it is the enemy of the British and has chosen to be.
September 6, 2025
Agricola, I suspect you are right on the early demise point. The manager has changed his squad, has put people to play out of position and has bought in low quality squad players. Give it a few months and failing performance will have the fans (backbenchers) baying for a new manager.
September 6, 2025
Nigel Farage said yesterday at the conference that he thinks there will be an early election in 2027, and that’s the date he’s working towards. What state will the country be in by then, and will Reform have a chance to recover it? It won’t be an easy job.
Reply Why such an early election? Labour can swap PMs without asking voters.
September 6, 2025
I think the assumption is that so many MPs will defect to Corbyns new party (or the Greens) so that labour loses it’s majority. Whilst not impossible this seems very unlikely to me, I suspect it’s more a case of Farage creating a sense of urgency and some slightly mischievous publicity
September 6, 2025
The issue becomes the probability of significant splits in the Labour Party. Some MPs may think that they would stand a better chance of reelection if they don’t get too tarnished by the Labour government and jump over to Corbyn’s party. That Starmer has been appointing left wing extremists as advisors in No 10 suggests he is aware of the threat.
The Labour vote is fragmenting, with some going to Reform, a bit to Lib Dems, and largely geographic clusters to Greens (now heavily infiltrated by some migrant communities) and Corbyn as well as swelling the ranks of NOTAs. Bouts of severe incompetence over tax and monetary policy, energy policy and immigration policy, and yet the lack of an extreme left majority in the PLP might provoke rebellion within it sufficient to bring down the government. Supreme incompetence could take us back to the 17th century politically as well as economically. We would have to hope the revolution would be like 1688 (bloodless) rather than the earlier Civil War.
September 6, 2025
“Why such an early election?”
The financial markets will bring this Government down. Look what they did to Liz Truss.
Additionally, Labour will likely fragment, and Starmer isn’t strong enough to hold them together.
September 6, 2025
I see no escape from Labour for nearly four years, they will hold on to the bitter end like John ERM Major (while doubtless Gerrymandering like mad).
September 7, 2025
I suspect Farage is now keen to secure focus on developing policy for government, rather than merely criticising government, so perhaps he is injecting a note of quiet urgency to that end.
September 6, 2025
They are a local park team, end of.
September 6, 2025
Yes we all heard the song ‘I’m an insomniac’.
Looked and sounded like Nul point for Reform – unless you think Dorries saved the day.
September 6, 2025
The interesting feature was Tice disavowing the Reform 2024 manifesto on the grounds of the severe economic difficulties imposed by the Labour government. Long overdue, but it undermines the pitch leftwards with policies like nationalisation and £20,000 income tax allowances that helped to hook in former Labour voters. A period without well delineated economic policy now seems likely, which may undermine their levels of support. They will need to do more than ride the crest of the anti illegal immigration wave.
September 6, 2025
Aseem Malhotra’s speech the corruption of healthcare and science in general was superb – just a little understated. It is even more appalling than he said! Where are the criminal investigations and arrests?
September 6, 2025
The Night of The Long Knives can be very effective. The two examples you deleted are clear evidence.
Politics is not business.
Starmer had an excuse to remove his leading rival. Other moves serve to distance Starmer from blame.
Poor candidates within the Labour Party is a much bigger issue than moving on existing ministers.
September 6, 2025
Politics is not business alas it is but a very corrupt one!
September 6, 2025
Good morning.
I have already used the SS Titanic and deckchairs analogy, so I’ll have to think of something different.
NO !! The SS TItanic and deckchairs is the best I can get. That or the picture of the ex-Deputy PM in her dinghy sailing off to France to seek asylum. Take ya pick.
My metaphorical money is still on the Markets calling time on this circus / clown show. And the sooner the better. It just is not funny anymore.
September 6, 2025
A good chairman or CEO would of course be severely hampered by all the daft legal constraints, employments laws, Rayner’s proposed moronic worker right law… meaning a vastly less efficient economy and more and more working in the parasite economy advising on these artificial obstacles to business.
I cannot see the Labour party with the large majority gifted to them by unequivocally safe Sunak giving power away until the last possible minute.
I see that an Italian study now shows the covid vaccinated had some cancer rates up too by circa 30% relative to the unvaccinated!
September 6, 2025
The UK is still not releasing figure for deaths etc. by vaccination status so we have to look to Japan, US, Italy, Czech Republic… for the truth.
So why might out envy of the world NHS and out UK medical “experts” be so reluctant if, as the claimed, the “covid vaccines” were so safe and effective? Why not release the figures to prove this. If not we need to admit they were an appalling disaster of vast size and see how we can mitigate this where possible. 30% more cancer treatments etc. will surely prove rather expensive!
September 7, 2025
Andrew Bridgen will be vindicated …. and another nail will be driven into the Not-a-Conservative-Party.
September 6, 2025
No good comparing Westminster to big business. As I have said many times they are all amateurs. They have their pet theories, based on thing much, and are allowed to try them out on the paying public, always with disastrous results and just walk away from their experiments with a pocket full of cash. Starmer is no CEO, he is a time server and has never run anything on his own. I would not let the Westminster lot run a bath for me.
September 6, 2025
Unfortunately the6 are NO5 amateurs, we suffer the PROFESSIONAL POLITICIAN. They depend on the largesse of the state every bit as much as a younger Rayner, unmarried mother, did.
Thus they are all socialist no matter which party banner they are elected under.
September 7, 2025
Don’t need professional politicians, (mostly spinners and liars, not actual workers) just professional at something with some experience of life in the real world, not the gilded cage of Westminster and politics. They seem to go to school to be indoctrinated, go to UNI to learn politics, go into politics and that’s it.
September 6, 2025
Indeed but given the dire MPs he has to choose from?
Raynor’s mistake was obviously not intentional and an easy one to make. To assume that having sold you propertly to a trust for your children. It seems the problem was one of the beneficiaries was her minor child and this was caught by the legislation.
But perhaps she can get the £40k back when he is 18 or it is fully disposed of:-
If you sell your first property within three years (more in some exceptional circumstances) of buying a second home, you can claim back the additional 5% stamp duty from HMRC. You must apply for your refund for SDLT on second homes within 12 months.
She was of course an truly appalling minister and her housing bill and her workers right bill are both appallingly damaging to growth, the economy, jobs, to tenants, landlords, workers, employers…,
September 6, 2025
Hopefully some politicians will learn from the Rayner lesson that stamp duty turnover taxes are a mistake and ones of up to 15% are absurdly damaging they used to be 1% top rate. They destroy mobility and damage the economy and restrict people’s life choices. Also that tax laws are absurdly over complex and this just generates more work for largely parasitic tax lawyers and accountants essentially yet another tax and hassle on top of the actual tax.
September 6, 2025
Agreed. The 2014 decision to differentiate tax on second homes meant, clearly, that for the first time the tax code had to then define what was a second home and also define what interests in a first home would count in that context. This represented a material increase in complexity, not least by the need to include anti-avoidance provisions in the tax rules.
September 6, 2025
It seems to be by design. If landlords cannot afford to buy additional properties and will be subjected to loss making taxation then existing tenants will be thrown out to house migrants, with the homes acquired by the state and its subcontractors like SERCO. Such action is being reported in the press.
September 6, 2025
Serco can off course rent to illegal immigrants other landlords are prohibited, also they can get loan interest relief – so once again a hugely rigged market.
September 6, 2025
You are generous. Rayner’s ‘mistake’ – funny that the mistakes are always underpayment and never overpayment.
The trust is for a single disabled child. Not ‘her children’.
Another example of NHS horrors where a baby was disabled for life at birth. Another massive payout funded by the taxpayer.
Let’s bang our pots ….
September 6, 2025
Don’t worry about how the Stamp Duty will be paid, resigning Ministers get 25% of their annual salary and that’s probably tax free… Knowing how our wonderful Parliament works…
September 7, 2025
Up to 30k severance pay is tax free I think. Also payments if they fail to get reelected as MPs.
September 6, 2025
Rayner’s ‘mistake’ was not an’easy one to make as you suggest’. People with complicated affairs consult proper professional people. The other mistake was she lied about getting advice. Where did she get this from- Rachel from complaints or Diane Abbot? Hers is the result of believing her own publicity that she is ‘brilliant’. She was quick enough to claim ‘Tarry Scoom’. Now she has joined them. No doubt she’ll be back to high office just like Mandelson and so the racket goes on.
September 6, 2025
Yes it is, she just assumes that as she had sold the old property to the trust the one she was buying was her only one. Caught by the minor children catch. She was a bit negligent in not checking in more detail perhaps but even had she rung the revenue after a 30 minute hold they often do not have a clue either! The real issue is the insanity of her housing and workers rights bills which are disaster for everyone – except parasitic lawyers and bad lazy workers perhaps!
September 6, 2025
Still the question of how much rent (which is then taxed in the trust) should be paid to the trust by the occupants, valuation issues, CGT payable by the trust when property sold, trustees’ duties to invest wisely on behalf of beneficiaries etc. etc.
The mistake would be to start on such a course of action with the trust money rather than just invest in a few decent funds for the child and leave the house ownership as it was.
September 6, 2025
I think only the stamp duty was incorrectly calculated and questioned. The disable child will need to live somewhere and perhaps needs carers to live there too.
September 6, 2025
She really is a nasty woman, she has a disabled minor child in Ashton-under-Lyne and buys a new home in Hove. Some mother!
September 6, 2025
LL It could well be a mistake as you suggest but the problem is then that she prevaricated about the “advice” she received. Mind you, many politicians consider this normal practice.
September 7, 2025
Hypocrisy certainly, but then all socialist are essentially hypocrites.
September 6, 2025
The lawyers always cover themselves by suggesting you take additional tax advice, legal advice… to cover their backsides, they are lawyers after all. Just as when you get a property survey the report will say things like “we recommend you also get a specialist timber inspector, the subsidence and structural expert, a damp expert, a roof expert… “ but here is you bill for £2000! Plus they were not able to see in the roof, under the floor and did not bring a ladder…
September 6, 2025
Lawyers don’t give financial advice, it’s like going to an accountant for legal advice. Everyone sentient knows that!
September 7, 2025
They often do in reality, but protect themselves with disclaimers. They usually calculate, pay and bill you for the SDLT stamp duty!
September 6, 2025
When we sold our last house, the solicitor offered an insurance to cover the roof in case the solar panel loading caused damage, as we didn’t have a structural survey in place.
I’m sure she was offering it so the solicitors could get the commission on the policy.
September 6, 2025
I dont know if you read the social media posts by Hiroshi Suzuki, the Japanese ambassador to the UK. The guy is seriously impressive, and does a far better job of promoting the UK than any UK politicians or public servants do. Also a complete contrast to his peers from other countries.
We should celebrate having him here, and use his passion to our benefit.
September 6, 2025
It is doubtless our loss that Mr Suzuki was not preferred over Cooper at the Foreign Office or Kyle at Business and Trade. Once more, the prime minister shows his lack of dash and verve.
September 6, 2025
I could walk into a random weatherspoons any weekend lunchtime and find a better cabinet than anyone in parliament for the labour party. just do that and put them all in the house of Lords. ministers barely matter anyway its the senior members of the civil service and public sector that are running the country to their own agenda and ignoring democracy. as someone working inside the home office revealed there are masses of Palestinian flags up in their offices, tells you all you need to know.
September 7, 2025
The Tories even put the dire Theresa Net Zero May in the Lords while Kemi was leader!
September 6, 2025
He’s kept the appalling Harmer in place so the anti-British policies will be continuing … and he didn’t dare sack Reeves.
This isn’t going to save him, or the appalling Labour Party, from electoral wrath next May or at the next General Election.
September 6, 2025
I think you’ve put your finger on it; first analyse the issue and find the problem. In this case the problem is the CEO. We all know the shortcomings, it seems only he doesn’t, but the shareholders have already come to a conclusion. Question is, do we have to wait for inevitable bankruptcy before the business can pass into competent hands? Is there a quicker way?
September 6, 2025
He’s keeping Reeves in position to take the blame when the inevitable crash comes. He doesn’t consider how to avert the crash, and appoint someone of talent (if he has any), just who to blame when it does. As I said he’s an amateur, not a CEO.
September 7, 2025
‘Time for a word with the generals’
I know lots of people in the army (including senior officers high up) plus i come from an extended army family. All of them love the comraderie of the army and serving their country but not more than that – other than looking forward to enjoying their retirement one day drinking chilled rose in the sun. None of them have much time for most politicians of any hue. This is England not a banana Republic. Even though some on the fringes of the left, right and WOKE would like to take us there.
September 6, 2025
If the CEO of a big company can’t identify problem departments or problem personnel then he can’t undertake any of these actions, even if he knew what to do.
An underperforming company finds it’s market lost to other competitors. Usually the owners step in and sack the CEO, but the owners of this company are unable to interfere for a full 5 years.
They are auditioning for a replacement but so far it’s been cheap tinsel performance and bragging.
We need the ‘bravest politician since Churchill’ but all we have is a ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’ crew gyrating on their little stage.
September 6, 2025
A cracking Blog today Sir John – Spot on!
Unfortunately, there’s nothing in it to bring us any cheer. This crew are taking us onto the rocks. I’ve told my sons to buckle up and bunker down. It’s going to be very rough ride indeed I’m afraid. I’ve a longer memory than them and remember things they haven’t experienced (as yet) like negative equity, high unemployment, galloping inflation, three day weeks, power outages and 15% mortgages…(take your pick!)
The problems may will be different (in the detail) this time around but will be just as hard to manage. My boys call me Dr Doom (I can’t think why) but I’ve never felt less optimistic looking forward.
September 8, 2025
Exactly which is why keep banging on this is central issue we should be discussing at Tory Conference. How to attract higher quality MPs into Parl. (Not easy, I know, but we could at least explore this as a group).
September 6, 2025
But have any of these people ever run a business ?
September 6, 2025
More importantly, do they have a clear mission, and a clear strategy ……I don’t know what labours plan is, it appears to be the last tory government, but a bit more honest about returning to the EU and excepting more immigrants
September 8, 2025
Exactly.
Running a business best experience to be a Tory MP. As it involves real skills in leadership, strategy, dealing with various different kinds of people with different skills, creativity thinking (service / product development), communication, branding, PR, legal, audits, financial control, dealing with emergency / critical situations. And so on.
September 6, 2025
Angela Rayner’s resignation letter was probably drafted many days earlier by someone else for her to agree to sign the finished version. That letter, Keir Starmer’s reply and the ethics decision letter tend to read as if they were coordinated by mutual agreement.
September 6, 2025
This modern trend of ministerial resignation letters turning into booklets trumpeting the supposed achievements in office however meagre even while leaving in disgrace is very tiresome, especially when compared to Richard Nixon’s succinct and sufficient “I hereby resign the Office of President of the United States”.
September 6, 2025
@Bloke. The ethics decision letter was written in such apologetic style. It was as if they’d been tortured into condemning her. It shows how rotten our system is.
September 6, 2025
An odd game of musical chairs that betrays the weakness of the prime minister and highlights the failures of many of his colleagues.
I too wondered “Why reward someone the PM clearly thinks has failed at Home Secretary with the Foreign Office?” and suppose the explanation is that while a serious failing at the Home Office, a minister who makes zero impact is a positive virtue at the Foreign Office.
September 6, 2025
Sir John, I fully agree with your reflections of this shuffle of the useless pack members by a PM who is unable to make a decision that in any way impacts either the socialist gameplan or reduces the civil service/Public sector scale of activities.
He is a bureaucrat operating in a commercial world it is the classic oil and water situation.
The socialist view is, everyone must get everything, except those with wealth who are simply providers, there only to distribute that ‘everything’. He is also a lawyer, with a strong commitment to defend the rights of the accused, (other than those who threaten to bring him down via free speech) his blinkered legal training is why he is so hopeless at making sensible decisions.
The rearranging deck chairs team on the Titanic meme, has been used to describe our present leadership mindset, I think that is very close to the truth.
September 6, 2025
Some good remarks but misses the fundamental problem – government is not the same as business. There is a superficial resemblence that diverts most people from the fundamental difference – government is there to run an unworkable system and pacify irreconcilable factions whose whole raison d’etre is to squabble.
It is not a business, more like Versaille, full of vicious squabblers backbiting for personal advantage who will isolate and destroy any attempt to change a comfortable self satisfying system.
A suggestion, don’t bother to renovate Houses of Parliament, empty out all the dusty scrolls and flog them on eBay then flog the building as a power station site or hotel or whatever. Build new outside London, Hove perhaps and make the chamber a round one and for half the number of people.
September 6, 2025
How does Hove or a Round Chamber help?
Westminster has worked for 800 years.
September 6, 2025
Of course it was bad. The implication being that remove on political ideologue and the other more religious nuts left will be less damaging, that’s perverse.
I know its my thing, Parliament those that hold government to account should also stand up to wrong doing or the perception of wrong doing. Parliament now has a member in its ranks that flouts the laws and the credibility of the whole House of Commons. Parliament today is accepting wrong doing in their ranks is the norm.
So how does that rest with the credibility of the UK’s Parliament, its Legislators does that mean they are all, that is all painted with the same brush?
We need a Parliament, a creditable Parliament that defends the people, the nation, democracy, freedoms and above all an equal Law for all….
September 6, 2025
Well thought and written Sir John, as always,thankyou.
September 6, 2025
Rather than do a re-shuffle, why not treat Angela Rayner’s resignation as a redundancy? It’s not like she was doing a needed job. When the country is increasing its population by hundreds of thousands of migrants each year, it’s not really a housing problem. Sort out the numbers and leave the question of housing to local authority.
September 6, 2025
Reports are that it is being treated like a redundancy, complete with substantial compensation for loss of office payment. I suspect many members of the public would consider it more appropriate were she to be suspended from the Commons for a period in excess of 30 days, triggering a recall petition, if she failed to apply for another Manor – this time of Northstead. Indeed, it is a test of the Parliamentary discipline procedure as to whether this occurs, and whether the system has really moved on since tte days of Maudling.
September 6, 2025
All so summing up the hypocrisy. In the Telegraph referring to the change of Home Secretary “will take on Reform and the Tories by articulating a tougher line on illegal migration.” Read the words ‘by articulating’, not doing anything just talking about it. It could all stop tomorrow, if not today if there was the ‘Will’ in Parliament to stop the invasion
September 6, 2025
Rarely are ministers qualified to run departments. This is why they rely on civil servants to do the job. Politicians are figureheads. If you analyse the Labour MPs available to fill ministerial roles, there’s hardly any talent there to choose from. Reform, if they gain power in government next, will face the same problem, which is why Nigel Farage wants to appoint experts to the House of Lords who can advise on policy and even fill ministerial roles.
September 6, 2025
Ah – Rule by Experts worked so well during Covid.
I’m sure Nigel will bring the House down. He’s capable of that.
September 7, 2025
I see Patrick Vallance is now deemed to be an energy expert supporting Miliband. Perhaps he will be planning how to run energy shortage lockdowns.
September 6, 2025
The incompetence of the PM is extraordinary but emblematic of the this Labour Government.
September 6, 2025
The PM is just “kicking the can down the road”.In another year or so there will be a further reshuffle of the same failed politicians getting appointed to high office without any scrutiny or accountability into their past failings.
In the meantime there will be lots of rhetoric and false promises on what will be done and how they will do it but none of it will be delivered because these politicians are simply not capable and competent enough to do so.
In the meantime the likes of Starmer, Reeves,Lammy ,Cooper and Miliband will continue to drive the UK economy and industry into the ground before another party takes over in 3/4 years time who will no doubt spend their term in office blaming their poor performance on the previous Government’s failures;
The confidence in UK politics and politicians is going nowhere fast unless we can elect some dynamic people into power who have the capability, energy,motivation and intelligence and can make brave decisions which they can deliver and are prepared to be accountable for.The only person that fits this profile that I can think of is Farage.
September 6, 2025
This reshuffle will not make any difference. The minsters are simply puppets so it doesn’t matter in which department they’re placed. The real power lies with the Civil Service, in particular the Permanent Secretaries, who will have a minister removed if they don’t toe the line as we saw with Dominic Raab. Last Wednesday, Roger Harrabin ex BBC environment and energy analyst (Cambridge English (viz creative writing)) told the ES&NZ Select Committee that “We have the World on fire”. Not one of the dummies present challenged this remark. Earlier in the session, the Chair agreed with the Greenpeace representative giving evidence that renewables were cheaper than gas….So if the current ES&NZ Secretary agrees with Greenpeace, the CCC and the Permanent Secretary at DESNZ his job is safe.
September 6, 2025
You highlight a different problem. Perhaps in the past it mattered rather less if Buggins wasn’t an effective minister. Sir Humphrey would pick up the pieces while quietly muttering “Yes, Minister.” But now the long march through the institutions leaves them riddled with similarly incompetent people at all levels, only capable of inflicting further damage. The education system has served to reinforce the incompetence, leaving better ministers trying to fight a rearguard action rather than improving policies.
It will require very substantial reform to restore proper and competent government.
September 6, 2025
I just wonder if its the civil servants that give the newly appointed ministers their ‘brief’
September 6, 2025
I think you are correct governments come & go but the brief remains the same a sham democracy
The only people looking at changing this is Reform ?
September 6, 2025
It’s possible. Cabinet meetings are apparently scripted…who writes the scripts?
September 6, 2025
We all know that 2TK has only left Theeves in place so she can take the flack for what will be a disastrous budget. Unless he then replaces Thieves with someone prepared to cut spending, and he can get his back benchers to go along with it, they are going to run out of other people’s money very quickly next year.
This wretched bunch of losers will be lucky to last until 2027.
Badenoch is also at great risk : after her hopeless performance at this week’s PMQs, unless she responds brilliantly to the budget in the House on 26th November, she could well be gone before the hopeless girl from accounts.
September 6, 2025
One thing this whole debacle has thrown up is the disparity in council tax rates. Approx £3,300 for a house in Manchester but approx £2,300 in Hove for a flat of more than twice the value and around £2,000 for a flat in Westminster with an unestimated value.
September 6, 2025
It’s clear the PM is not up to the job because he lacks the knowledge and experience required. His only qualification is that he’s passed the Bar exam and become DPP. Even that proved to be an unremarkable, non-event.
So, he’s in the same boat as the rest of his low grade cabinet in that he has zero business acumen, and in Century 21 such a qualification is vital to promote and expound your country’s abilities and interests across the globe. All he seems to be good at is welcoming uninvited foreigners to our shores and embracing visiting National leaders.
How long can this charade continue?
September 6, 2025
When it comes to shuffling we all hope we are dealing from a full pack of valid cards. However when it turns out the pack is nothing but a load of jokers, the only real option is to throw it in the bin and start again with a fresh pack.
The clowns Starmer has promoted to office include a man who thinks Marie Antoinette won the Nobel Prize for Physics, he is the new deputy PM no less. A woman who has presided over complete failure at the Home Office. She is now given Chevening as a grace and favour estate to swan around, plus an open cheque book to fly anywhere she likes, as often as she likes. Remember, It is so important introducing yourself to countries in the South Pacific and the Caribbean or Monaco places of importance like that. Who knows she might even make it to the Chagos islands if Mauritius allows her to go there….her predecessor who thinks Marie Antoinette won the Nobel Prize, gave Mauritius that authority remember.
September 6, 2025
It is indeed a bad reshuffle. Harmer, Milliband and Reeves should have gone, Cooper and Lammy should have been sent to the back benches, not given another job. What does this say about the lack of talent in the Labour Party.
If you allow and promote mediocrity, that is what you get! Where there is no vision, the people perish, and our PM has no vision!
September 7, 2025
Two Tier, Free Gear, Rarely Here, Political Prisoners Holder, wreck the economy futher Kier should have resigned too.
September 6, 2025
Before the election was won, I warned on this site. Every Labour government since WW2 has wrecked the economy and so it goes.
Rayner was a tax dodging hypocrite (working class though) 🙂 She had to go.
Starmer ain’t got a clue. I mean Lammy as deputy PM …..
I think we are heading to a collapse of government and it can’t come too soon
September 6, 2025
But then we all pointed out to you that Johnson-the-Destroyer had got there first.
September 7, 2025
Indeed Boris and Sunak borrowed £400 billion to waste on net harm Covid vaccines and net harm lockdowns and a similar sum on net harm Net Zero and “renewables” giving us rip off energy costs.
September 6, 2025
You need to turn it upside down, Sir John. Starmer’s Gang do not believe in the nation state. They believe the nation state is the supreme obstacle to the international socialist order they want to impose. They aim to dissolve the nation state, destroy what is insoluble, subsume its innards into the Brave New World of the Socialist International. Clearly some of the Gang have been better at dissolving, destroying and subsuming than others, but the most important thing is to reward their loyalty and their efforts, to demonstrate to potential recruits that the gang looks after its own. Rayner’s sin was to expose the sham and hyopocrisy of Starmer’s Gang. That will never do.
September 7, 2025
Precisely.
September 6, 2025
Sir John: I cannot recall you ever posting a lengthy (experienced) insight into the interaction Minister/
Civil Serpent.We are left with the thought that “Yes Minister” +”Yes Prime Minister” is,whilst funny,
telling it as it is.
Reply Could do. I have been both senior civil servant and Minister
September 6, 2025
To be effective in any job you need insight into issues and dedication.There again if you’re looking good and can actually manage there will be the jealous many who will do the opposite of your plans and bring you down.Good thing competition eh!
September 7, 2025
John,
How many politicians in any Cabinet, let alone this Cabinet, have the requisite skills, experience and qualifications to manage a Department of State?
They have very little training and rarely focus on a single issue during their career development.
The same can also now be said of Civil Servants where they are shifted every 12-24 months between Departments as they, all too rapidly, climb the ladder ending in senior positions by their late 20’s/early 30’s. Experience is allowed, nay encouraged, to retire early to assist in this deskilling. Public sector pensions pay out too early and people move on to second careers in lobbying, education, charities.