Thread 6 Burnham: Resitting and Resetting

[DuncinToffee]

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https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5572981-thread-5-brunham-be-more-dolly?page=39

Most recent poll. There was another published yesterday by yougov which had Reform 1 point ahead on 25%, Labour 24%. Both polls have Cons at 19% and two points down. Sorry Kemi.

I have now watched the whole speech. I am really impressed, more than I thought I would be.

What he said about social care and youth services was spot on.

https://bsky.app/profile/bruceandy.bsky.social/post/3mwpq2w7pes2z

🥳 UK economy grew more than thought in the second quarter.

• GDP +0.5% qq versus a previous estimate of +0.4% (same with GDP per head)
• Strong business investment growth (see 👇)
• Current account balance (exc. precious metals) smallest in 5 years at 1% of GDP thanks to services exports

Get this - real GDP per head has grown by 1.1% over the first half of 2026.

Excluding the swings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, that's the largest increase since late 2017.

That's going to upset the IMF. I heard they'd already booked their flights and hotel rooms 🤣🤣🤣

😂 It’s going to upset more than the IMF. Obviously those figures are massaged.

Back to the triple lock/care system issue for a mo - he really needs to sort out what that means for the devolved governments. He does tend to think about England rather than Britain I think, and as person in Wales with a devolved health service I’m not sure how giving up the triple lock to fund a care service works - will we get neither in the devolved nations?

I think the IMF have been kidnapped. They were supposed to be here last Christmas. Then Easter. Should we send a search party out?

Perhaps they should ask Tommo since they’ve got him to hand at the moment. He’s got form.

Quite happy to debate whether the government paying you less to start with equates to the government paying you more, but then taxing it by an equivalent amount.

I am reminded of a canny manager who used WFH as a tacit payrise.

That is a really good point, Cardi.

🤣

I think that's a really fair point, and if he means what he said yesterday about wanting to prove Swinney wrong about the future of the union, this is going to need to be addressed.

Don't forget wee Norn Iron hi.

My late mother got free home care from Marie Curie. However that was because she had a cancer diagnosis the previous year - it was a slow growth tumour that was never going to kill her, but nevertheless she qualified. Cause of death was old age - she was 99.

In 2024, the more level headed commentators noted that the first tranche of policies were boring, unsexy but needed for growth.

The whole NI tax on jobs narrative seems to have lost steam. Which highlights the challenges involved in opposing an even halfway competent administration.

So happy this thread is an oasis of civility and debate and measured discourse in the sewers of MN.

Apropos of nothing I have spent the last few minutes watching a squirrel happily bounding about on the front lawn. 😀

Agree Jane.

@cardibach we’ve been asking the same questions re devolved social care.

We are already better off in Wales with home social care in that it’s capped at £100 per week which isn’t the case in England AFAIK. Similarly the capital threshold is £50k here and £23k in England.

With a different party in charge though it could get very complicated.

I can't see that happening either, she's a one trick pony and being spiteful is the only way she knows. Shame really.

Yes, my dad got home care in his later years to help with getting up, going to bed and ensuring he had eaten (and he had 2 daughters and some grandchildren popping in). All very reasonably priced - he couldn’t believe it and would have paid more fairly happily. He also got several weeks of free respite residential care. We were just about to move to paid for care when he died.
Burnham is great at devolution to cities but I just don’t think he really grasps what the devolved nations are or how they work. He’s been out of Westminster a long time.

Not a shame if it makes her look foolish and wrong. She’s been proved wrong about Burnham being a ‘people pleaser’ after all.

the people pleasing thing is the same as Badenoch complaining that L/Ds like to fix their church roof and be liked in their constituencies.

As if politics only exists to manufacture anger, rather than make the state work for its citizens.

Anyway…

https://bsky.app/profile/survation.bsky.social/post/3mwpxjlaopk2u

Tories rule out taking party in Burnham's proposed cross-party commission on electoral reform

Good. If they want to make themselves even more irrelevant that’s an excellent way to go about it.

So much for effecting change along with a robust debate.

But I thought Kemi was always happy to co-operate? Or is that just when it involves welfare cuts?