To think Andy Burnham is doing a decent job so far?

Migration reached its peak under Boris Johnson.

https://didtheydeliver.co.uk/uk-net-migration/

Shhhh! How does that help in blaming Labour?

How dare he go on holiday. Bloody cheek of it.

Yesterday, I met with other parish councillors from our medium sized village in the central south to decide our strategy for 27/28.
For the first time ever we expanded our list of Risks beyond the obvious, such as flooding, to include crop failure/rise in food prices, cost of oil and the effect on services, cyber attack wiping out payment systems and the forced influx of persons.
As a council we’re absolutely non-political but listed realistic issues that’ll affect the ongoing stability of our village community.
Is this not also a list of what the government should be tackling now?

His gone on holiday abroad and Louise Haige is in charge apparently. Not sure what she wants to do about the drought, but it’s worrying that the government have hardly mentioned it and it’s obvious that months of no significant rain is a worry.

@Corianda is making a very valid point. A point made by John Prescott, at the time:

Prescott said he was "extremely concerned" that a sudden large influx of migrants would put pressure on social housing.

Blair went with this despite not having to at all. This was all revealed in newly released files, earlier this year.

Tony Blair opened Britain’s borders to eastern Europe despite migrant influx warning from ministers, files reveal | LBC

What do you think the goverment can do apart from introduce water restrictions if needed?

Hmm. This was part of being in the EU and we know a huge number of EU nationals left the UK with Brexit.

It's also the eastern Europeans who I would suggest brought a lot of good to the UK in terms of skills and work. They brought a net positive economic impact, paying more in taxes than they took in benefits.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2014/nov/positive-economic-impact-uk-immigration-european-union-new-evidence

The late John Prescott was also worried about car ownership too. He went on ‘top gear ‘ once ages ago and said that 7 million more cars were bought than they anticipated.
Building more homes is all well and good, but increasing the amount of people living here will mean they will go on to have children and it goes on and on.
Plus new homes where I live are pricy and not affordable at all either.

No, the government can’t make it rain, but it doesn’t seem to be on their radar much either.
Maybe they are just hoping it will by autumn and it’ll all be fine.

My understanding is that the Govt pay subsidies to the bus companies to cover the "lost" income from OAP's free bus passes and the fare cap.

No, it wasn't "part of being in the EU". Other major economies in Europe put limits on Eastern European immigration, Blair CHOSE not to!

The Starmer government did have a definite climate change agenda.

I agree with what @Visiblyabove25 posted earlier: they’re using money that was allocated as climate grants to developing nations and changing those grants into loans, so that they’ll be paid back at a later date and are therefore future income (on this, I would say I agree with ^ and my one uneasiness with Andy Burnham’s administration is whether they’ll be strong enough on climate action)^.

I was shocked with the "drill, baby, drill" policy of Burnham, too. Very strange when we had the driest July on record. I suppose Miliband is kept out of the way in his new role. I wonder what he thinks?

They didn't all stay and have children here though, did they? So many went back with Brexit.

The biggest component of the official "tax gap" isn't big companies and the rich - it's the black economy, i.e. small business not declaring income, cash in hand workers, vat evasion, duty free and counterfeit goods, etc etc.

We were hesitant about including wildfires (presently very relevant on surrounding farmland with, on our farm, last night one small fire on a field not entered for two plus weeks) as it’s a transient threat. Or is it - is drought the way for every summer now?

More than half of that is believed to be due to carelessness or error in record keeping.

Most obviously, the use of fire breaks around settlement. And catchable/usable water supply. And maintain the retained firefighter service.

There should be a ban on disposable bbqs or even matches for sale. I know it’s hard to enforce, but must be something someone can do as the wildfires are not starting themselves; find out the causes ( although I guess that’s already been done ) and a fireman last night was calling for more money too.

The provisional estimate of total long-term immigration for year ending (YE) June 2023 was 1.2 million

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingjune2023

Common sense would indicate that the more fare paying passengers on a bus, the lower the subsidy would need to be. There is no lost income, simply more people using buses than they otherwise would. That leads to services being maintained and thus available for fare payers.

Agree with this.
Truth is, unless you live in a town that houses a high number of these 'fighting age men' we hear about, the impact of 'the boats' is likely to be negligible on your day to day life.
There's a hotel in my town that houses migrants. I know about this only because the local SM are 'up in arms'. I can say with honesty that I have barely seen the residents, who keep very much away from the local population, likely feeling more intimidated than aggressors.
Far more pressing concern for me is the impact of poverty on my community. The generational worklessness that is the legacy of pit closures, and was never addressed. (Actually, that's unfair. When we were in the EU, there was some investment in coalfields regeneration. But obviously that's gone now.)
The young people who can't afford to house themselves.
The increase in CT from the Reform local authority who promised they wouldn't raise it, yet the potholes remain unfilled, graffiti is still not removed.
In fairness 80% of their budget goes on social care, so theres precious little left to improve lives, even if the administration werent incompetent.
Immigrants haven't caused any of these things, and stopping the boats won't resolve them.
Of course my 'lived experience' as a WC woman in a WC town will no doubt be ignored because its not convenient. But the rising popularity of Labour shows I'm not alone.

That hasn't happened in Greater Manchester though. The Bee Network operates with a significant annual deficit.
The Bee Network ‘cannot continue’ in its current form due to the expense of capping fares while passenger revenue remains below pre-pandemic levels
https://www.thetimes.com/article/563f73af-fe02-4d92-a695-9e84e9bc54b9?shareToken=e6a12c0527bc51aeec48a60bd3971508

According to that article it has happened - passenger numbers are up by 14%. Cambridge has increased bus use in the city by making the cost of parking usurious and providing six park and ride hubs around the city. Parking is so difficult at the hospital that most patients who are able use park and ride with a bus that drops them at the door. There’s more than one way of skinning a cat.

They could for a start get rid of the exceptions that allow golf courses and private schools to carry on watering their grounds. The (very expensive) golf course near us is verdant due to the pop-up sprinklers. The boarding school is running giant sprinklers to keep the sports pitches green, even though it is the holidays. Meanwhile the village rec where the children play is just dead grass and we have to water our gardens and allotments by hand.

It's not going to offset the drought and water shortages of course, but at the moment it very much looks like it is one rule for the rich and another for the hoi polloi.