thelanigan

A wrote a thing about a music festival, Larkin and John Keats weatherglass.substack.com/p/a-weekend-in…

@SimonMagus Growth in employees whse job is effectively regulating the work of others? HR, ESG, EDI, financial regulators etc

Problem with all this is that it doesn't tell us what caused the stagnation in productivity growth. Just that this slowdown is a big factor in our woes. What changed sometime around 2001?

@Dan4Barnet Two years in: 'establish a task force to provide recommendations'. What's next? 'A consultation process to include the voices of all stakeholders before referral to an action committee'?

Reflecting today on a big week for HM Treasury... On tax we announced: - Temporary 5p cut to fuel duty extended until the end of the year - One-third off fuel duty for red diesel to reflect the very significant increases in costs for farmers and other users - one-year suspension of Vehicle Excise Duty for HGVs, to help the road haulage sector with impacts of higher prices - VAT cut to 5% on kids meals and family activities throughout the summer - a big increase in the main rate for mileage allowances from 45p to 55p, the first increase in 15 years - closing off the ability for companies with foreign branches to offset losses overseas against energy trading gains in the UK - Publication of our consultation on the details of the High Value Council Tax Surcharge, ahead of inclusion in upcoming finance bill. We also announced some big pro-growth and investment reforms, just the sort of thing I was advocating for when a backbencher. This included, the establishment of an independent Mass Transit taskforce to provide recommendations on how we can speed-up and reduce the costs of transport investment. And the plans to devolve Transport and Works Act Orders to Mayors are potentially game changing - hoping for swift progress! And on the data, we saw a big fall in inflation in April because of the measures the Chancellor took in the Budget to take £117 off energy bills. Yes the impact of the war in Iran on our shores is being felt, and will be seen in future data. But ours is the right plan, and we should stick to it.

@joshi @ManchesterMill Not at all! AB makes a tiny cameo appearance in my new novel. I hope he enjoys it as much as he no doubt enjoyed reading this...

@thelanigan @ManchesterMill Thanks 🙏

I’ve been writing about Andy Burnham in Manchester for a while. We’ve had a few run-ins but I think he has qualities that many people don’t appreciate and weaknesses that spell trouble. I wrote this for @ManchesterMill - I hope it’s insightful and fair. manchestermill.co.uk/stop-looking-f…

@rorysutherland @antipode_elliot It's greatest achievment was the evolving metaphorical nature of Mrs Slocombe's pussy. It was (briefly) a cat, but quickly transformed into something quite different: a hybrid feline / pudendal mythical entity that free fignified in spacetime, like Medusa.

@antipode_elliot That was high art.

There was an ITV gameshow in the 80s called 3-2-1 which was largely incomprehensible*, and which was part fronted by an animatronic dustbin. It routinely had over 20m viewers. * I once watched an episode with a bunch of astrophysicists and people with PhDs in applied mathematics. Noone could explain what was going on.

@AndyBurnhamGM @tomhfh The Manchester bus system is enabled by substantial central government grants as well as a local council levy and a hypothecated element of the Council Tax. Done at a national level the equiv is: more borrowing, more tax. is that the message then?

@tomhfh Having more public control of the essentials helps build a more productive economy. A deregulated bus service which didn’t serve all communities and charged £4 for a single journey did the opposite. Our growth is about much more than buildings.

Manchester’s growth is almost entirely due to allowing people to build things. If this happens in more of the country - as Starmer first promised and then failed to deliver - then that would be a good thing. If Burnham has learned the wrong lessons of Manchester’s growth, however - like thinking more nationalisation is the answer - we’re in for a very, very rocky ride.

@GlasgowRanger2 I would have thought that the SPL would much prefer Hearts to win the league: breaking the Old Firm dominance much better for them than another Celtic win. I can' t see a co-ordinated conspiracy, just a series of ridiculpous cock ups.

Michael Stewart insinuating exactly what we all know it is… CORRUPTION👏

@RachelReevesMP “Improve peoples’ lives for the better” is illiterate. Can any of you do one single thing competently!

These are tough election results for Labour and I’m sorry to all of those colleagues who have lost their seats. Keir Starmer won a mandate to change our country. We must get on with delivering that mandate - and show how politics can improve people’s lives for the better.

@AaronBastani Why not just googlle it? Brum is c 42% white. But I imagine everyone’s fed up with the council’s abject budgetary management and wading through piles of bin bags, so they’re looking for alternatives

@thelanigan But I’m often told there are no white British people left in Brum any longer? It can’t be both can it.

Sounds like Reform could well be the largest party on Birmingham city council (Richard Tice at count). Does this now mean it’s ’based’, rather than a poster child for civic breakdown?

@DanCardenMP @timothy_stanley Ok, this is the easy bit. Now do welfare, the Triple Lock and NetZero

Labour is losing today because we are a party that won’t say Britain is broken - when it is, won’t challenge the rules of globalisation, and we are now a party defined only through tax, spend and welfare — and with no answer for working class voters who’ve been left behind. The question isn’t how to win them back. It’s whether Labour wants to represents them at all.

@lukeakehurst Fine, now try to get any of this through the PLP

The message from Northern council results swinging sharply to Reform echoes that from County Durham last year. To win these communities back Labour needs to: - focus on tackling the cost of living crisis - not backslide on tackling illegal immigration - reindustrialise - invest in high quality jobs and transport infrastructure in left behind communities - including ensuring the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan has a regional jobs impact - deepen initiatives like Pride in Place to regenerate high streets and town centres - tackle ASB, drug crime, shoplifting and offroad bikes - be pragmatic about net zero policies so that they don't cause jobs to be lost, whether that's allowing the 2 new oil and gas fields to proceed, or ensuring the ZEV mandate works for the car industry

@BhushanManmath Too chest on

Most beautiful bowling action the game has ever witnessed🔥🤯

@talksports45 @Pankaj26_ Jesu on a unicycle.

@thelanigan @Pankaj26_ 56.5 to be precise. Recalculated it

Calculated the median scores for test batsmen who managed to score 8000+ test runs. Took some efforts to do this, but was a fun stat. Have divided the list in 2 parts. The 1st has players with a median score >=30 and the next with <30. Brian Lara-33.5 Garry Sobers-33.5 Rahul Dravid-33 AB de Villiers-33 Viv Richards-32.5 Sachin Tendulkar-32 Kane Williamson-32 Kumar Sangakkara-32 Jacques Kallis-31.5 Allan Border-31 Steve Smith-31 Shivnarine Chanderpaul-31 Virender Sehwag-31 Younis Khan-31 Kevin Pietersen-31 Matthew Hayden-31 Javed Miandad-30 Geoffrey Boycott-30 (1/n)

@talksports45 @Pankaj26_ Christ on a bike. Thanks Spandan.

@thelanigan @Pankaj26_ 56

@Pankaj26_ @talksports45 Love this. Bradman number, just for laffs?

@talksports45 Unreal diwnfall🤯 34 to 23 📉

@RobJohnsto37860 @lrozen The SDP polled at 50% in 84/85, had gone 4 years later... The Greens' coalition is inherently unstable, Labour have got net migration levels down massively, undermining Reform's only distinctive idea, KB may be replaced my someone stronger etc. GE29 is *miles* away

@thelanigan @lrozen I’d also suggest Reform and Farage will be the same they may be popular at moment, I cannot see that remaining the same at GE time esp as they are seen as Trumps UK Party! Like Trump Reform have a TV channel and that might be influencing things, it might not retain it’s licence

“Trump’s chaotic interventions — now Iran, Cuba next, maybe strikes in Mexico — will only accelerate Britain’s realignment. Starmer may be unpopular but his foreign policy isn’t. Even Labour’s right-wing populist challenger Nigel Farage, who styles himself as close to Trump, has backtracked on his support for the Iran war and now pledges support to Ukraine. More profound is what’s happening on the left, where the U.K. is seeing the breakout of mass anti-American politics for the first time: both the Greens and the Liberal Democrats are surging.”

The UK triple lock is the singlest stupidest policy in the entire Western world, and the most damaging to the future of a country. Of course, it is also untouchable and almost undiscussed in the UK press. @mattyglesias does a big favour to the UK public here.

@gilescoren @guardian He's a sanctimonious, envy-ridden, vindictive clown who tries to compensate for his intellectual and moral inadequacy by being the Rightest Thinker of the Right Thinkers. Not an uncommon phenomenon. You might call it 'Stadlenism.'

Wow, this is some mad fucking antisemitism from @guardian - and a truly honking piece of restaurant writing into the bargain.