Mr Burnham inherits a ruinous half completed EU re set negotiation. If he is serious about raising living standards and listening to voters, he should pull out of the talks. The Manifesto was right to say the government would keep us out of the single market, the customs union and freedom of movement. The likely deal breaks all these promises. So far there is no news that it can deliver the very modest aims of easing the restrictions on touring musicians or obtaining mutual recognition of professional qualifications also in the Manifesto.
As Mr Burnham departs on his listening journey he will find welcome support for his idea that the cost of living is voters’ main preoccupation. Family budgets are too squeezed and living standards have at best stagnated. People want improvement.
He will also discover that the second big preoccupation is to him the less welcome strong feeling that illegal migration is an expensive pressure on housing, utility supplies and communities. People do not just object to seeing illegal arrivals put up in good hotels that the communities would rather use for travelling business people, tourists, local events, weddings and special occasions. They also object if the illegal arrivals are given priority for social housing, or convert family homes into Houses of Multiple Occupation. People object to the whole idea that their home areas have to change to house people who should not be here at all. People want stronger border control, not a new way of housing the results of weak borders. He will also hear if he listens that opening up safe routes so the illegals can all become legal is not what people have in mind either.
The leaked plans for re set will worsen the cost of living pressures. Joining the EU carbon emissions trading scheme means imposing a higher tax on energy intensive goods which we will have to pay. Imposing a carbon border tax (CBAM) on imports from outside the EU will mean dearer energy intensive products which we rely on. The give away of 12 more years of large amounts of our fish for nothing in return means we cannot rebuild our home fishing industry and have a better supply of local fish.
The proposed SPS Agreement on food trade will mean the imposition of a large number of unwanted rules on the many small UK companies and producers who do not export to the EU. This will involve them in extra costs that will help push up prices.
The EU demand that the UK makes a Solidarity payment to secure the deal w8ill come on top of stated charges for rejoining parts of the EU single market for their administration. This should mean a tax rise for us to pay the extra bills, as the government has run out of room for yet more borrowing.
Rejoining Erasmus to replace Turing for students means a far worse deal for UK taxpayers and students. Students will lose the opportunity to go to non EU universities. Taxpayers will be paying an extra £700 m of tax to meet the bill, which will largely go to EU students coming to the UK. If the Uk concedes domestic discounted student fees for EU students the universities in the UK will have to hike the fees for all students to make up the shortfall, fitting UK young people yet again.
The proposed Youth Opportunity scheme is a version of freedom of movement for all under 30 year olds. There are so many more on the continent than in the UK, and many there want to come to the UK to learn English. Where will the government house them all? Will they qualify for free benefits and free public services? How will those bills be paid?
So here is some good free advice to Mr Burnham. If he is serious about wanting to control the cost of living he needs to control public spending and the costs facing UK business. The current EU re set plans do the opposite. So scrap them.
If he picks up on his travels the anger about weak borders, he needs to close down the talks on more young people getting the right to come here from the EU. The difficulty the EU is having in controlling its own borders reinforces the message from the public that we need stronger controls, not weaker rules. Making illegals legal is not the answer most people want.
August 11, 2026
Indeed ditch the EU reset, the vast NI increases, the VAT on school fees, Net Zero, Carbon Taxes, the workers rights bill, the tenants rights bill, the equality act, close the borders to all low skilled migrants, send illegal immigrant back home, stop benefit payments to people who choose not to work, ditch HS2, halve the size of government, ditch the expensive No 10 up North gimmick, ditch the idea of more power to direct local politicians like Drakeford, Sturgeon, Sadiq Kahn… Ditch the doom loop, anti-growth, tax to death economic agenda. Get drilling, fracking and mining
In short reverse of everything Labour have done so far and much of what the 14 years of Con-Socialism did and the many disastrous years of Blair and Brown vandalism too.
August 11, 2026
Rejoining the EU is so Burnham priority. Like net stupid it is a religion. I just hope a future government will repeal any legislation detrimental to us.
Yesterday 230 illegals were deposited on our shores with the tacit approval ov Westminster, Brussels, the Border Force and the disgraceful RNLI.
The silence from Westminster is deafening. When are they going to take this invasion seriously.
Burnham is a man without a plan and his premiership is about to unravel spectacularly as these alien horses continue to arrive unapposed.
August 11, 2026
I’ve been amazed this week at the absolute vitriol poured on Farage in the run up to the by-election. The uniparty must be terrified of losing their rightful position of destroying the country. I do believe it’s having the opposite effect on the voters who see the shallow propaganda being pumped out by the uniparty shills
August 11, 2026
Well it is working for them currently, the latest poll is LABOUR 28%, Reform 24%, Conservatives 22% – nationally that is.
August 11, 2026
‘ditch HS2’
– You can’t ditch HS2. It would cost billions to ditch at this stage. Even though I agree, complete waste of money.
August 11, 2026
The spent money fallacy. Just because they have moronically already wasted £x billion on something stupid is no reason to spend another £y billion finishing something stupid off. THAT WOULD BE even more stupid still. 17 years of uniparty HS2 lunacy. The cost will end up at about £200bn but still cheaper than the Covid Lockdowns and “Vaccines” £600bn (for doing serious net harm) and Net Zero which will cost several £trillion in the end also doing serious net harms. All mad uni party lunacies.
What will be the true value of a finished HS2? Perhaps 10% of the cost or so? How much subsidy will it need per ticket to attract passengers?
August 11, 2026
Mr Burnham inherits a ruinous half completed EU re set negotiation. If he is serious about raising living standards and listening to voters, he should pull out of the talks.
Since when did Liebour or Tories or lid-dims listen to the people, it’s about time we had Mps in Westminster who know what they are talking about and not the mantra that they have ram down there throats by the left wing media and education system, we are the people running this country and not the few wobble heads in parliament and the sooner these MPs get it into there thick skulls the better our country will be, so start listening to us the people and not your trade union or high ranking liebour/tories/libdims officials but us before it’s too late
August 11, 2026
The King of the North is going on tour to send out a message that he cares about his subjects and will address their concerns. However, it is just an image building exercise – a new gimmick.
He will not do anything about the cost of living. It will go up. He may make some Robin Hood adjustments. He may take more from those who actually work and give it to those who don’t.
On illegal immigration, he will express concern but do nothing. Figures will be produced to say ‘numbers are going down’. The numbers will not pass even the briefest scrutiny but the message will just be repeated constantly.
The Kings chancellor will say little. He will stay in the background – until the wheels come off.
August 11, 2026
He cannot make “Robin Hood” adjustments – Robin Hood stole from the tax collectors and establishment, Burnham is the face and protector of the establishment.
August 11, 2026
I don’t think Mr Burnout is serious touring the country is a political stunt
If he was serious he would immediately unburden business and set up an environment for the economy to grow increasing revenue into the exchequer and reduce borrowing costs
This would also allow the young to get employment and reduce the benefits bill
No this is just another man without a plan
August 11, 2026
Starmer spent his time flying anywhere to avoid being in the UK. Burnham looks to be touring UK – method of transport? A caravan? At least he might brutally learn about the cost of living, roads in decay, traffic jams, scorched fields, farmers facing financial meltdown, scarcity of water etc.
August 11, 2026
No plan would perhaps be better than the doom loop economic agenda we have had so far from tax and regulate to death Reeves and Starmer.
People keep saying how Burnham is far better at “communication” than Starmer. Well perhaps but then as he has nothing sensible or substantive to communicate is this an advantage.
I have little hope that even when we get an election (in perhaps three more years) we will actually get a sensible right wing government with a decent majority and even if we do will they actually deliver or be able to deliver against the blob, the judiciary, the quangos. The vested interests is insanities like Net Zero, mass immigration, the international bodies, the BBC type propaganda outfits…
LABOUR actually ahead of Reform in the latest poll who are slightly ahead of the “Conservatives”.
August 11, 2026
David Starkey puts the odds of the UK being turned around at 1:4 just 20%. The rot started with Ted Heath who failed to undo the disasters of post war Labour governments, a partial buttemporary reprieve under Thatcher then down hill all the way since John Major (who did have one more O level that Prof. Arday’s 2) but joined the ERM with a view to joining the Euro. See the guilty men book by Peter Oborne from the CPS. Also – The End of an Empire: Britain’s Self-Inflicted Fall From Glory | David Starkey video.
All rather depressing.
August 11, 2026
Very depressing. Latest Government statistics state that 40% of school children are from ethnic minorities. Once we oldies die off, the white indigenous people will be in a minority. We already see the two-tier society they have planned for us. The problem is, we have nowhere to flee to. This was our home. This is what politicians over the last few decades have done to us, apart from a few good people who have been crying into the wilderness. Politicians past and present should be ashamed of themselves. The Fabians and communists have won. They have captured all the institutions, and the voting system is so corrupt that we cannot change the course we are on. David Starkey is a very wise man and warned us all, but those in power will not listen.
August 11, 2026
LABOUR 28%, Reform 24%, Conservatives 22%, LibDims 12%, Greens 8% – hard to believe the Burnham bounce will last very much longer the public are surely not all that daft?
August 11, 2026
Westminster is stuffed full of Remainiac MP’s, still crying into their subsidised G&T’s about Brexit. They are slowly slipping us back into the EU by stealth. Burnham won’t stop it, he’s part of it.
We need a new government lead by a party that wishes to support the Brexit result and to put British people first.
August 11, 2026
Afraid like many politicians before him, what Burnham says, is not necessarily what he does.
Actions always speak louder than words.
If you cripple business and the self employed with more and more taxes, and more and more regulation, they will all raise their prices to counter such madness and the increase in their overheads, so you cripple any idea of real growth.
Redistribution, or legalised theft from those who have saved and invested for their and their families future, and you kill off the idea of trying to be self sufficient, because they simply say “Why should I Bother”.
August 11, 2026
We have no choice other than to get used to high continuing high levels of illegal (‘irregular’ as their supporters in government and elsewhere like to put it) immigration. Labour, Greens and a high proportion of Tory MPs all want it based on what they say, do and don’t do.
The future for England is dystopian as adaptation becomes the norm. For the indigenous middle classes faced with local migrant crimes in every area, especially crimes against women, we will have to invest in local private security firms for some measure of safety in the future from our increasingly limited personal resources.
August 11, 2026
Correction, 2024 total insolvencies were 23,872 and not 23,938
August 11, 2026
The BBC reaches a weekly average of 450 million people worldwide, including about 90% of UK adults across television, radio, and online services – the vast majority of whom are happy to pay the 50p/day licence fee.
The BBC has a global reputation for truthfully reporting newsworthy items, despite the never-ending “bias” campaigns undertaken by it’s competitors in the right-wing media and far-right populist politicians who should know better.
What should replace the BBC, if the aim of selling it off piecemeal by breaking it up succeeds? The parochial GB News, which can only muster ~90k daily viewers? GB News is not profitable and has sustained significant losses since its launch, with pre-tax losses for the year ending May 2024 at £33.4m. GB News has been found in breach of Ofcom’s broadcasting code multiple times since its 2021 launch and was most recently fined £100,000 by OFCOM in 2025
How about the Telegraph? The paper was up for sale for two years and was upported by investors from middle eastern oil states – with distinctly pro-fossil fuel, anti EV, anti net zero and anti-renewables propaganda a (boring) daily offering.
The BBC is doing an excellent job of promoting British culture globally. The number of American viewers/listeners is increasing each month. Time to back off and support our national British media champion for once
August 11, 2026
SG: BBC TV broadcasts and iPlayer are not available abroad. If with your 450 m. audience figure you’re referring to broadcasts, you are therefore talking only about radio programmes. If you mean TV programmes bought by overseas companies, they would surely continue to be available whatever the future format of the BBC, which could still have the facilities to make programmes.
As for the BBC’s ‘global reputation for truthfully reporting newsworthy items’, it has a long record of having to retract false claims, re Maccavi fans in Amsterdam, Gaza, lobbying in Myanmar, the Six-Day War, etc.
Then there’s Trump and Jan. 6. The BBC has acknowledged that it ‘gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action’. That was after claiming in 2023 that Trump had earlier been found ‘guilty’ of sexual assault, when the jury had found him ‘not guilty of rape’. Yes, it’s good that the BBC acknowledges its false claims, but boy does it have a lot to apologise for – see their retractions archive!
August 11, 2026
How do you know they are “happy” to pay the licence fee, they are obliged to pay it under threat of imprisonment so many do pay. It does not show they are happy to pay they merely have to. If they were happy to pay make it voluntary and see how that goes!
August 11, 2026
T-Shirt boy is a good politician – distracting with gimmicks without making necessary improvements in the main areas.,
Where is the consultation on how much water storage we need, nuclear power, immigration, food security and of course a mutually beneficial arrangement with the EU and other trading areas.
T-shirt boy seems to be unaware of unintended consequences, picking the fruit without planting the seeds.
August 11, 2026
We already make the illegals legal. As soon as they arrive on UK soil they claim asylum so they become legal.
The safe route method is the way to go. Set up an office in Calais where they have to make their claim, and if they ignore the office and decide to smuggle themselves in a rubber boat they become illegal and can’t claim asylum. They can then be placed into secure accommodation (POW style and sorry no heating because we’re trying to save the planet) pending their return to their home countries.
Meanwhile those choosing the safe route fester in Calais waiting for Home Office approval that proceeds at glacial speed. Perhaps one or two are approved now and then. Chances are they will get fed up and go somewhere else if they don’t want to run the gauntlet.
August 11, 2026
Good morning.
Question: Why does there ‘always’ have to be an EU reset ? Why not a UK-USA reset ? Or a UK – Commonwealth reset ? We seem to want to ‘reset’ (code for re-joining) with the EU all the time. We all know what it is, so let us call it for what it is – Re-joining the EU. Letting them dictate what words we use allows them to frame the debate. Change the words from ‘reset’ to ‘re-joining’ and all becomes clear.
And finally. There is another word I like to add to this debate – Treason. Just saying. 😉
August 11, 2026
Shabana Mahmood, the new Home Secretary, has been the subject of some harsh criticism about what’s been happening in the English Channel lately; but the truth is worth repeating – the trend of irregular migration is down and the gangs aren’t having it all their own way.
It’s a cat-and-mouse game, in which the authorities and the criminal gangs are constantly trying to outflank and outsmart each other with new techniques and tactics.
Hence the evolution in size of the inflatable craft deployed to move asylum seekers across the English Channel. The latest record is 230 people crammed into a “mega-dinghy” – 50feet long – and buckling under the weight. It is not the first time the delivery methods of the smugglers have been adapted
Source – the Independent
The crucial point is to focus on the numbers of people arriving by all irregular routes. This is falling, as is lawful migration for that matter. The lurid headlines, spurious claims by extremist politicians and dramatic images are all misleading. The reality is that the numbers of people making the perilous cross-Channel journey is in fact down about 40 per cent on the same period last year. Large numbers of failed asylum seekers are being deported. – official Home Office statistics show that nearly 60,000 unauthorised migrants and foreign criminals have been removed since the election.
Having said that, more can obviously be done. Regardless of Macron’s objections, once they are landed here we should immediately take their photograph, fingerprints etc and send them back.
August 11, 2026
Customers are paying the second highest electricity bills in Europe and industry nis paying the highest, which all goes on the bill, along with higher taxes and more regulations and employment law. Mr Burnham doesn’t need to ask the people paying for his policies. He won’t do anything about it because he’s a fully controlled globalist fabian following UN and WEF agenda. The aim is to make us poorer and the less developed countries richer.
August 11, 2026
You only have to have a glance at the Guardian to realise that there is a fanaticism about rejoining the EU among Labour supporters reflected in government. Ironically one or two of their financial journalists say that Brexit was a good move.
August 11, 2026
Personal, very personal ideology placed before common sense and importantly before running the country serving its people.
A Marxist Ruler looking for praise, creating ‘black-holes, on top of ‘black-holes’ knowing as ultimate Ruler in his dreams the minions will pay and worship the ground he walks – as that is the directive. Another Socialist Tyrant were it is all about ‘self’ not service and duty. Doing things he is note empowered and paid to do – Walter Mitty in LaLaLand
August 11, 2026
Mr. Burnham is a very deep socialist and since socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor then all his policies whether they be EU rejoining/resetting, Net Zero, immigration (legal or illegal) or the Chagos give-away, will be those that will cause de-industrialisation, impoverishment, social unrest and national insecurity. Mr. Burnham is the Manchurian candidate and the only thing British about his Foreign Secretary is his passport.
August 11, 2026
Mr Burnhams troubles are just beginning. We have a serious debt problem and no obvious way out.
He is going around telling voters he is concerned about the cost of living, when the cost of living is about to go through the roof. He can’t borrow without pushing up his Gilt costs. He can’t tax his way out – although I’m sure he will try, because in practice it will reduce his revenues. We are sitting on top of a Laffer curve. He can’t reduce taxes because he can’t borrow to cover the reductions and he can’t grow his way out with what’s coming (higher food and energy prices)
In short, he (and we) are in a complete mess – it’s just that it hasn’t dawned on most folk how bad it is yet.
Burhams Circus will tour the Country whilst the problems keep piling up and he has no serious solutions to offer. Neither does the EU of course….although I guess there is some small comfort in shared misery.
August 11, 2026
Burnham seems intent on taking actions that will harm British interests and merely doing some tiny things that might be beneficial by tinkering around the edges. Already he exhibits many signs of being bad.