Foolish Goggins

For the first time in decades, a generation of people genuinely believes they may live worse than their parents. They work hard, pay more tax, face higher rents, higher bills and feel further away from home ownership, family life and stability than the generation before them. A lot of working people feel punished for doing the right thing. They get up early, go to work, try to build a decent life and watch more of what they earn disappear every year. And they are all asking a simple question now: where is all the money going? Towns do not feel safer. Their quality of life has declined. Their children do not feel more secure. Public services cost more and deliver less. Many workers no longer feel represented by a political class that seems more comfortable talking about redistribution than wealth creation. People don’t feel politics works for them anymore because for years both major parties protected the same economic model: high migration, expensive housing, expensive energy, stagnant wages and declining living standards. For years both major parties signed off on massive government spending and years of quantitative easing that fuelled inflation and eroded living standards. People feel it every day at the supermarket, in their rent, in energy bills and in the cost of raising a family. They work harder, yet their money buys less. That’s why governments now collapse so quickly because daily life is getting harder and nobody in Westminster seems willing to change course. Six Prime Ministers in sixteen years. Not one with the spine to cut the state. We need to take a chainsaw to the planning system, cut regulation, build homes at scale, drill our own oil and gas and reward work again. That means lower taxes on workers and businesses. It means making it easier to hire, build, invest and start companies in Britain instead of burying everything under endless forms, delays and compliance costs. We regulated growth out of the economy. It means stopping mass low-wage migration that suppresses wages, inflates housing demand and causes infrastructure to collapse under the immense pressure. We know the parties that created this mess will not be the ones to fix it. They still cannot even admit how badly they failed the country.

Rupert Lowe & the Great Yarmouth First councillors already pushing to make changes in the local area that they represent. Crazy ay, imagine that all over this country. Restore Britain are the future!

I am honoured to accept the appointment as Victims Minister.

Starmer's authority is now crumbling. But even those most committed to a new Prime Minister should pause for thought about what it means for Britain in the world. For all his many, many domestic missteps, Keir Starmer has genuinely led on Ukraine, make tough calls with Trump and rebuilt relations with Europe by working intensely with President Macron and Chancellor Merz. Labour in government was shocked at how quickly it was swamped by foreign affairs from Gaza and Ukraine, to Trump and Iran. This isn't going to change. However Starmer's challengers have no foreign policy experience, no geopolitical worldviews, no foreign affairs teams and no experience in explaining our place in the world and its tumult to the public. But if they succeed that will be half their job. What's the plan for a geopolitical pivot to Europe? What's the strategy to deal with Trump and our fragmenting Western alliance as China's Axis of Authoritarians deepens? What's next for Britain's extensive diplomatic and security role when it comes to Ukraine? Who will be maintaining key connections to the White House? Changes at the top are often necessary. But they are delicate and not cost free internationally. In diplomacy so much is bound up in personal connections and trust built up over time. Building since 2016, these musical chairs at the top have now become so intense, with Prime Ministers lasting roughly two years and Foreign Secretaries now annuals, our allies and partners are frustrated. I've heard from European and Gulf leaderships first hand it is hardly worth investing diplomatically in a counterpart who's suddenly gone and thus hardly worth investing in Britain.

The far-right in the UK are a few fat skinheads sitting in the dark corner of some rundown pub, talking about bulldogs and Nick Griffin, ignored by everyone. The far-left in the UK are the leadership of the Labour Party.

While the United Kingdom faced unprecedented illegal boat crossings, UN agencies condemned plans for deportations. UN officials lobbied aviation regulators to prevent the deportation of migrants – an appalling violation of the UK’s national sovereignty.

My lawyers have formally written to Ben Habib. They demanded an immediate apology and public retraction for the baseless allegations he made today. I do not take legal action often. But I will not accept slander & politically motivated smears after winning a national election.

Deputy Editor of The Spectator Freddie Gray discusses the impact of the Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer stand off on today’s State Opening of Parliament.