As the country waits for its new unelected government to arrive and come up with a plan, the bills mount through the incompetent management of a bloated public sector.
British Steel is losing £1.3 m a day and its Chinese owners are demanding £1 bn compensation for the plant the government runs but does not own.
Great British Rail needs more money to cover its losses and to give it some more cash to invest in better trains and signals.Burnham’s people are talking of reviving a new line from Birmingham to Manchester as HS 2 gobbles the cash to try to get to Birmingham more than ten years late.
The Post Office got a huge subsidy last year so it could show a profit and may well need another £500m this year to help it pay all the compensation for its grotesque mistreatment employees in the past over false accusations of fraud.
Illegal migrants keep arriving by expensive Border Force boat needing housing and living costs. The surge in people qualifying for benefits continues. Unemployment rises most months. The benefits bill is out of control.
Remodelling government with Number 10 in Manchester as well as in London will mean more staff, more office accommodation, more train fares and motorcades. More devolved government to an unloved city region level of artificial government will add pointless bureaucratic cost to the already high costs of Councils and Whitehall. Three or four layers of government arguing over who does what means more staff, more lawyers, more oppression of people and companies with conflicting and cumulative government demands.
And how to pay for all this? So far it is let them pay tourist taxes if they dare to take a weekend break or a holiday. That will not prove enough to pay the hungry Mayors and cash gobbling nationalised industries.
July 1, 2026
The pan is about to boil over, the country is broke for sure. The state boot on the tax free threshold ( inspired by Sunak and Hunt ), out of control spending on benefits, asylum seekers, public sector workers’ wage rises / pensions / expenses / other benefits, etc.. / industry intervention subsidies / vanity projects et al..
Labour are scrambling to rob Peter to pay Paul, witness yesterday’s Defence fudge. Where will it all end?
This country is in dire straits and deteriorating fast..the own goals are in, the squadrons of chickens coming home to roost.. it is an extremely concerning future we face.
July 1, 2026
Indeed well JR Burnham will give us growth in every postcode, hope In every heart and a number 10 up north and more money and power to local Mayors and politicians like Sturgeon, Kahn, Drakeford… surely that will work?
The UK Treasury quietly dropped the numerical reasoning test from its graduate scheme for policy advisers to improve candidate diversity. Uncovered by The Spectator, in a Freedom of Information request. This will surely help too. Candidate with sufficient “diversity” clearly have problems with numeracy. “Maths is racists in it” as some people like to say.
It seems that at Energy and in the Climate Change Committee they have zero grasp of maths, physics, engineering or logic is this perhaps for the same reason?
July 1, 2026
I assume the BoE under Bailey has a similar agenda looking at how inept the Bank is. Staff at the BoE can also work 8 weeks abroad and doubtless most of the rest off sick, on holiday leave or “working” from home. Absurdly generous “employee” benefits too.
July 1, 2026
And how to pay for all this ?
Pretty damn obvious to a blind man the Liebour party are going to tax us to death as they always do when in power, that’s all they know what to do so long as they don’t get clobbered in the process, no doubt wants the so called saviour of the North gets into No10 we will get to hear some policy’s but you can bet your bottom dollar that the workshy/ illegals won’t get hit the Burnhamator will look after them that’s for sure
July 1, 2026
It’s not going to happen. The countries technically bankrupt and printing more money will result in a Bond strike.
It’s a bit like when the BBC wanted to move production to Salford, staff had to be forced kicking and screaming, eventually most commute there at great expense.
I think Burnham is going to be a big disappointment.
July 1, 2026
Good morning.
I am not fan of Any Burnham MP, but the guy has not even been an MP for 14 days let alone 14 years ! And none of what has been mentioned has been done on his watch.
So how will PMQ’s be done, via Teams ? This is clearly a power play. Just like the Ukrainian President (don’t remember his name and cannot be bothered to look it up) and his style of dress which says; “I am too important to worry about what I look like to the likes of you !”etc ed
Well, as I said here before when TTK was sort of in charge, he has about 18 months, no more, to turn things around. If people do not feel any better after that, Labour are done !
July 1, 2026
This problem of balancing the books did not start with this Government or the one before or the one before that however with all the brains locked up in the Lords I am sure you can collectively come up with some ideas to put forward to Government to ease the situation – perhaps that saving of 350 million on the side of the bus could go some way – however let’s hear the full Burnham plan first before we run him down.
July 1, 2026
Well we heard Burnham’s vacuous plan on Monday. More money and power to local politicians like Kahn, Drakeford, Sturgeon types, growth in every postcode code, hope in every heart, and a No 10 up in the grim north, a council tax for everyone. Nothing about the open door immigration, crime levels, or funding all this, or the net zero rip off energy lunacy.
Should be wonderful until they realise they have no money.
July 1, 2026
I am surprised that he did not also promise everyone perfect health, great intelligent and a beautiful girlfriend or handsome boyfriend or both for all to keep sleep with while in their free council flats.
July 1, 2026
U.K. experienced the sharpest drop in personal wealth among all developed markets, with the average mean wealth per person falling by 23% since 2020. According to the UBS Global Wealth Report, this leaves Britain trailing second-to-last out of 56 markets globally.
Why would anyone with wealth choose to live in the UK unless they want to quickly give all their money to the state to waste (can the people not think of far better things to spend or invest or give to good charities). Often worse than waste as we saw with Sunak and Boris. £600 billion borrowed and spend doing vast net harms with Covid lockdowns and net harms Vaccines. Even more spent encouraging feckless people not to work or even learn how to work.
The Conservative Chancellor who announced the scrapping of the historic non-domiciled (non-dom) tax status was one Jeremy Hunt in March 2024. Yet another PPE chap, a dire failed health secretary and deluded socialist. I assume he thought it might win votes for the party! It did not and it drove much wealth, investment, high spenders and businesses overseas. Sunak, Hunt, May, Cleverly and many more – still all pretending not to be green crap loving socialists and all still taking the Tory whip.
July 1, 2026
The HS2 description of a service to enabling journeys from Birmingham to London 10 minutes early, arriving ten years late is very apt. It demonstrates the inefficiency of the public sector management.
The scale of the UK mismanagement at the state level is so bad I think Burnham will have to call a election. It will be that, or he will have to declare a national emergency. If it is the latter he will head a coalition of all parties attempting to hold the woke direction of travel together, while re-joining the EU as his solution to the complete and utter failure of government.
The most frightening feature of that strategy is the idea the EU is in any way shape of form, in a better place with its management policies than Britain is. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is a mess nationally and Burnhams idea of giving Mayors complete regional control, of that mess is about as unhinged an idea as the socialist mind can come up with.
July 1, 2026
The losers in our political world are howling for an election. The dreadful Nigel Farage, desperately trying to spend his £5m donation before the Commons investigation kicks in, is the loudest voice
Lets be straight about this. Labour have a huge majority and they do not have to go to the country for three years. The electorate put them in to fix multiple problems left behind by the Conservatives in 2024. Starmer and his government failed to quickly implement sufficient change and were punished in the May local elections
The end result is that Burnham gets his chance – he soundly defeated Reform/Restore combined. Immigration and the national debt are the overriding issues of the day. Whether Labour win again will depend on how Burnham and his Chancellor deal with them
July 1, 2026
It’s probably too much to expect the Burnham team to have any answers for the major problems we face, instead his fanciful ideas like devolution will solve nothing while spreading resources ever thinner.
Does he actually know how bankrupt the UK is, how much money we are paying as interest to keep the economy afloat, and all the time the only thing we get from labour is to find subtle but spiteful ways to tax us more.
If the old labour regime under Starmer had no concept about renewing the economy, Burnham turns a blind eye, while trying to distract us with wistful socialist daydreams. How much of our resources will he nationalise and how will it get paid for?
Ah yes, that’s it, there are still a few pensioners just above the breadline who have a little sum tucked away – who do they think they are hoarding money when the government can make so much better use of it supporting those that don’t want to support themselves.
Some call labour’s policies Wealth Transfer, others call it outright theft by a bungling regime that cannot even recognize their failings – the new Burnham regime will be no better than the old one.