Guy Rendell

@cleanupbritain @bencobley @benonwine It can!

This roadside verge reveals: A total absence of personal responsibility A rejection of the notion of community pride A failure of legal enforcement against criminals A complete embarrassment for Britain It cannot go on. @benonwine

There is a huge problem in politics - one this government seems particularly prone to - in thinking that you're doing a great job but all that's required is "better comms". Early preview of Starmer's speech takes this to it's final point. A PM on the fences, announcing no radical policy action... just a speech about how the gov needs to speak about "hope". It's exemplified best in that awful Steve Reed video where he complains about the amount of "bad news". Just because you think you're doing "sensible things" doesn't mean it's actually the right stuff, nor that it's changing people's lives for the better! Comms isn't the problem, doing (the right) stuff is!

Probably the single best explanation of why Britain’s economy is completely stagnant, by @cjsnowdon. Basically we have stopped being a market economy - we are now a ‘capitalist command economy’. thecritic.co.uk/on-britain-as-…

Norway approves the re-development of three North Sea oil-and-gas fields that were closed ~30 years ago. After redeveloping, the fields will pump gas and light oil. The gas will be sent to Germany and the light oil to (irony of the ironies) the UK. regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/god…

Lots of people know the worrying reality of Swindon Town's off-field situation but, for various reasons, are unable to discuss it. Those reasons are sound. I hope we will start to have some visibility sooner rather than later and no longer have to read between the lines. #STFC

BREAKING NEWS: @SCCCBrianTheCat back at the CACG and gearing up for #SOMvYOR Day Two ❤️ #YouAreSomerset

The best wealth tax is a massive increase in housebuilding. -> Property is largest source of UK wealth -> Most actually doable wealth taxes boil down to taxing property anyway -> More supply = lower house prices = more people on ladder, lower cost of living, wealth democratised

We always say re. Truss and Starmer etc, why didn't they get more scrutiny? It's because scrutiny requires technical knowledge. Interviewers need to know as much or more than the politicians about economics or specific policy areas. Which in most cases shouldn't be that hard.

Mind you, this happens 30 min into the Mad Men pilot:

Only two years ago Labour pledged to allow 1.5 million homes to be built during this Parliament. Among people I know, one of the main reasons to vote Labour was the hope that they would build some houses. Since then, only ~217k new homes have been completed in England. Housing starts have fallen to their lowest in over a decade – even lower than during Covid. Housebuilding in London is down by 75% – to 5,891 starts in 2025 compared to a target of 88,000. This failure is shared by the Conservatives, who introduced a swathe of terrible building safety regulations after Grenfell that have made it impossible to build in London (and have, incidentally, helped to ruin many leaseholders as well). But Labour hasn't touched these rules. And it has done nothing of note to make it easier to build in other ways. It has also passed a Renters' Rights Act that locks landlords into tenants indefinitely unless they sell or move back in to the property. Tenants can challenge any rent rise, and face no penalty for wrongful claims (under the old system, they faced the risk of their rent being raised, which cannot happen anymore). The law even introduces de facto rent controls by allowing new tenants to immediately challenge rents they have just agreed to. It is designed to clog up the tribunals, and tenants have every incentive to challenge rent rises under any circumstance. The natural response of landlords has been to leave the market ever since these rules were first floated (again, under the Conservatives). That has driven rents up even higher and made it harder to find places to rent. Today the trend is so obvious that the government is now floating *explicit* rent controls, on top of the de facto ones introduced in the Renters' Rights Act. The doom spiral we are in is pretty clear: - Do nothing significant to expand housing supply; - Introduce "renters' rights" that make it much riskier and costlier to be a landlord; - When landlords sell their properties, driving up rents and the scarcity of rented homes, introduce 'temporary' rent controls. ← You are here - With an election looming, extend the rent controls so they are de facto permanent. - As even more landlords sell to flee the market, introduce a ban on selling rental properties into owner-occupation. - You have now expropriated 19% of the English housing market, and destroyed the build-to-let sector altogether. If I was a landlord, I would sell to get out of the market ASAP while it's still possible. For renters, this will make it even harder to find decent places to live and move around when circumstances change (eg, you have a new job or want to start a family). Much of the British left seems intent on destroying the private rental market. But Labour has also managed to preside over the worst collapse in housebuilding in modern times, apart from the financial crisis, after campaigning on promises to expand it. An abject failure in almost every way.

The Bank of England just sold a 2061 gilt at £23.41. It bought it at £100. A 67% loss, indemnified by you. This is the receipt arriving in the post. From the automation revolution, Britain’s demand-side collapse has already begun, the cognitive middle is the collateral, and the £9.18 trillion of housing wealth on household balance sheets is about to discover what it actually is. The BoE knows. The Treasury knows. No party will say it out loud. The coming recession is merely foreplay. Read the full diagnosis 👇 open.substack.com/pub/anglofutur…

Apparently this Morecame fan was kicked out of Forest Green’s ground for having a bacon sandwich…🥓❌ Forest Green Rovers only sell vegan food & drinks🌱

The greatest scene in TV history 📺

Harry Kane is 32 years old, married to his childhood sweetheart, has four children, runs his own mental health foundation, and donates regularly to armed forces and mental health charities. He doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and has spent his entire career in the spotlight without a single scandal attached to his name. On the pitch, the numbers are extraordinary. His country's all-time top scorer. His boyhood club's all-time top scorer. Six Golden Boots, four in the Premier League, one at a World Cup. Figures that the vast majority of strikers will never get close to. And yet he remains one of the most written-off and underappreciated players of his generation. A man who has devoted everything to club and country, never once put a foot wrong off the pitch, and embodies every quality you could want from a professional footballer. If you're looking for a role model, it doesn't get much cleaner than this. The fact it even needs pointing out says everything.

ICONIC

Miliband can do a lot of damage between now and the next election, but nothing he said today changes the underlying facts. Those facts do not justify doubling down, or going further and faster. They confirm the opposite. He remains an ideologue trying to force physical reality into a political narrative. Britain’s industrial electricity prices remain among the highest in the developed world, not because hydrocarbons are inherently volatile or expensive, but because of two decades of UK climate leadership policies, many of them championed by Miliband himself. The costs now embedded in the system are the result of domestic political choices. No amount of selective framing or obscurantism can alter the fact that wind and solar are low-density, diffuse and intermittent energy sources. As such, they require massive overbuild, expanded grid infrastructure, storage, back-up generation and constant system balancing. Yes, dictators cannot control the wind and the sun. But nor can Ed Miliband. De-linking electricity prices from gas will not change the physical requirements of the electricity system, or make intermittent generation behave like efficient firm power. Miliband is right to say we are exposed to LNG. But we are more reliant on expensive and volatile LNG because we have vandalised the North Sea by starving it of investment, banned fracking, run down nuclear and blown up our coal-fired power stations. We are exposed to price fluctuations because we have migrated towards short-term spot markets, failed to secure enough long-term contracts and closed down strategic storage.

Sonny Baker and Alfie Ogborne used to live together in a flat on the ground at Taunton. Very cool to watch them steaming in over the last few days. According to the iHawk data, both clocked at over 89mph. Piece with them. Extremely fun bowlers. thecricketer.com/Topics/county-…

From Botham to Buttler and the Rews — why Somerset set the standard. A piece for @TheAthletic on the ‘smaller’ cricketing county getting so much right nytimes.com/athletic/72121…

@DanKingdom96 Thanks.

@HeftyToe He was ok when he got a chance, a few bad balls but there's something to work with in there

This is up there with our best victories this century. To go to Chelmsford and dominate Essex like we did is not something that away teams do very often. It's a minor detail but I loved the way we went about the small chase - no fuss, just got it done in no time.