There are three good reasons why government should first present new spending plans, new taxes and new laws to the Commons.
The first is the discipline of preparing a policy and thinking through how it will work makes for better and longer lasting proposals. Ministers need to draft a statement which answers the How, the Why, the How much and how it fits in with existing government actions. Policy on the hoof to please crowds and respond to opinion polls can easily fall apart, leading government to U turns and ridicule.
The second is the announcement to Parliament and the public conversation Parliament supplies serves to inform the public. It gives the government a platform to explain it to the public and to make its case of why it is a good idea and how it will affect people.A casual reply to an interview or a planted story does not have the same credibility or force . Limiting which media outlet gets the news item on a favouritism basis limits coverage elsewhere or encourages the rest of the media to be critical. Announcements to Parliament can be covered by all media.
The third is that in a democracy we welcome the ability of MPs to be critical of government to spur them on to perform better or to explain themselves better. People who disagree with government’s aims or general strategy deserve a voice to put forward an alternative for debate. More importantly for government MPs of all parties may make a constructively critical contribution leading to improvement and amendment of the government’s initial version whilst keeping the aim.
So please Mr Burnham do yourself a favour by recalling the Commons and making proper announcements, thought through that add up. Doing it with a crowd pleaser a day and a U turn on the morrow is sloppy. It damages confidence in government and in the markets. U turns before you have landed a single proposal will drain your authority.
July 23, 2026
Exactly right but he surely won’t do this. It is all about pathetic gimmicks and PR. Does he really think changing payments for daft “green” projects from gifts to loans (that will never be repaid) will fool the bond markets? They claimed yesterday to have taken the 5% VAT of energy bills but no it was 5% (actually less than 5% as 5/105) only off electricity bills not our usually larger heating bills for gas, oil, solid fuels. Plus this loss of tax will need to be made up elsewhere anyway. Just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and trying to con people.
July 23, 2026
Electricity bills far exceed the gas bill in any household.
Reply Many of us heat our homes by gas so the gas bill is bigger than the electricity bill. Heating by gas at one quarter the energy cost of electricity still makes sense for most of us in older homes.
July 23, 2026
The people of Northern Ireland won’t enjoy the 18p per day reduction in their electricity bills because the government needs Brussels permission. Just one of many anomalies caused by the uniparty who never wanted to leave the EU.
July 23, 2026
Allister Heath today in the Telegraph.
Burnham is a financial arsonist who will torch the public purse
The Prime Minister’s Jekyll-and-Hyde personality masks a ruinous socialism that threatens to bankrupt us.
Jacob has a video on the dire new Cabinet, fairly sensible stuff as usual, but he keeps saying X or Y Minister is an intelligent man or woman. If people are intelligent surely they should be able to recognise, human nature, economics, basic science and understand reality. Why would anyone who does grasp these things join and remain in the Labour Party pushing such mad and evil policies? Unless of course they were liars just on the make perhaps?
July 23, 2026
Too late already JR.
I was prepared to applaud the ditching if Digital ID, Net Zero, the raising of tax thresholds.
All reversed.
Will we see Lammy and Reeves back on the front bench?
At this stage anything could happen.
July 23, 2026
Lynn. We have Starmer mark 2. Another Fabian who believes in open borders and government control if alk aspects of life.
He’s appointed another head banger to head DENZ and Mahmood will do nothing to reverse immigration. Gimmicks and soundbites are all we an expect from Guyliner and his third rate cabinet.
July 23, 2026
Good morning.
I am going to be controversial and say that I see no reason to recall the Pantomime our system of governance has become. Firstly, because so much, and soon to be more, powers are devolved. Either to the colonies, 😁 the EU or QUANGO’s etc. I mean, with so many doing the governments work, they can afford to take as much time as they wanted. TTK found this out. When he called for something to be done, other than locking up ‘mostly’ peaceful protestors, quell surprise, nothing was done.
So given the above, why expect anything different this time or the next ?
July 23, 2026
Burnham has been busy seeking popularity with his generous offers to cut electricity bills by £45 , build more council housing, reduce business rates, reduce income tax on low incomes etc, but his new Chancellor and the advisors will need time to work on the inevitable tax grabs. They work out where the wealth is in the same way that a bank will when asset stripping customers that it doesn’t want. Property and business will be the targets. CGT and IHT are likely to be raised to a point where it will not be worth starting a business or investing in anything honest.
July 23, 2026
He won’t do it because he knows his blinkered, unimaginative measures – capping bus fares and expanding the state via unwanted devolution – are low priority for most voters. He’s said nothing about illegal immigration and is ideologically unwilling to help businesses (SMEs in particular) through lower taxes.