GREATER love hath no man for his country than Sir Keir Starmer, who gave up his premiership so that Rachel Reeves could be replaced as chancellor by John Healey.
But is that it after the bi-annual changing of prime ministers? Starmer was undone by Reeves, who made a wrong move at the start by putting VAT on private school fees. The result is that over 100 schools have closed, with no apparent benefit to the state sector. This is a symptom of a deeper problem. She has also driven thousands of entrepreneurs to Dubai and other tax havens.
Healey resigned as defence secretary, because he accused Starmer of not giving enough money to his department. If he now does so as chancellor, he won’t have enough for other priorities. He is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.
The Financial Times pointed out: “The biggest challenges are long-term: the need to prevent the state pension bill climbing, to curb spending in hospitals, and to forestall a worrying increase in young people out of work on disability benefits. Will the government be forced to raise taxes again?”
“Burnham is already signalling the answer is yes, telling the former footballer Gary Lineker he might ‘at some point’ have to ask taxpayers for ‘a little more’,“ added the FT.
What can Andy Burnham do that Starmer couldn’t? Not much, it seems.
Without economic growth, Britain’s problems are not going to be solved.
In the end, increasing taxes on ordinary people who are employed to give more money to those who cannot or won’t work will make a bad situation worse.
One hopes Burnham will take full advantage of the Free Trade Agreement with India, possibly Starmer’s greatest achievement.
Lord Simon McDonald, Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and former head of the foreign office, is writing a book on the UK’s “special relationship” with the US.
The White House is said to be unhappy with Ed Milliband’s appointment as foreign secretary of the UK.
According to the Daily Telegraph, “Mr Miliband could also face a backlash over historical comments of his own about Mr Trump. In 2016, he wrote: ‘We must do our best at home and abroad to resist the worst of Trumpism… These are dark days for America and the world. There can be little solace right now.’ Later, he told the BBC’s World At One: ‘The idea that we have shared values with a racist, misogynistic self-confessed groper beggars belief.’ In 2017, he said Mr Trump had ‘lowered the bar for idiocy’ and later joined a Stop Trump March in London.”
Such perspicacity in one so young shows promise.
