Rats and sinking ships

Apparently, the people of Makerfield have voted for ‘change and hope’. Whoopee-doo.

Two years ago, the country elected Keir Starmer on the promise of change and no doubt that came with a dollop of hope too.

As the Parliamentary rats desert his sinking ship, we must surely ask: Change from, or to, what? A new Prime Minister, obviously, but then?

Surely, the leader of a provincial fiefdom whose greatest claim to fame is failing to win the Labour leadership twice then running away from Westminster does not inspire much hope.

The only changes we are likely to see are the further ruination of the economy (Ed Miliband as Chancellor? Angela Rayner as Foreign Secretary?), more extreme left-wing policies and Andrew Burnham’s smug satisfaction at slipping into Number Ten by the back door.

As Karl Marx said: ‘There is no change without sacrifice.’ Keir Starmer will not be the only sacrifice on the altar of Burnhamism.

Time out for trade unions cost us £89 million

Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester Combined Authority claims the 34 people whose trade union work takes up at least half their time only cost the taxpayer £121,000.

Finding this hard to believe, I checked the Government’s own data for what is called ‘trade union facility time’ for 2024-5. Oddly, this excludes Greater Manchester, London and similar fiefdoms.

Even without these, the taxpayer pays £89.8 million to allow civil servants, teachers, doctors, police officers and so on devote their time and our money to their various unions.

The civil service bill alone runs to £13.7 million with – every accountant will be delighted to learn – £2.29 million spent by HMRC, exceeded only by £3.2 million at the Ministry of Justice.

Our schools and universities spent £19.3 million on union activists while 312 local councils were in for £29.4 million (Birmingham’s bill was the most at £1.8 million).

The National Health Service devoted £18.9 million to unionists, including, we must suppose, the time it takes for the average junior doctor to get her act together sufficiently to organize yet another strike.

The police unions cost the taxpayer £5.3 million while ‘other’ public sector bodies cost us a further £3 million. Here, the BBC stands out: its 316 union reps cost the licence payer £775,000.

I still think GMCA’s modest £121,000 is a made-up number but, quite possibly, so are most of the others.

Birmingham NHS bosses warn of disruption ahead of strike - BBC News

Remain optimistic about Brexit

It should be obvious to most people that Brexit is not the cause of this country’s woes and, indeed, that binding ourselves again to a fading 1950s pipe dream is liable to make things worse. GDP growth since 2015 in the G7 shows the following:

* 🇺🇸 USA: ~121 (Up 21%)

* 🇨🇦 Canada: ~116 (Up 16%)

* 🇫🇷 France: ~110 (Up 10%)

* 🇬🇧 UK: ~109 (Up 9%)

* 🇮🇹 Italy: ~106 (Up 6%)

* 🇩🇪 Germany: ~106 (Up 6%)

* 🇯🇵 Japan: ~104 (Up 4%) 

We did worse during Covid than any of the others but rebounded faster than any G7 European country and Japan. The USA and Canada are doing best largely because they do not endure idiotically high energy prices.

In 2024, EU growth was 1.1 per cent, so was Britain’s. Last year, the EU average was 1.5, ours was 1.3 or 1.4 according to the Office for National Statistics. Admittedly that’s well below the 9 per cent recorded by the Cook Islands but above France, Germany, Italy, Austria or Canada.

The trouble with this endless argument about Brexit is that it is possible to find statistics to support both sides of the divide and that allows everyone emotionally invested in their abhorrence of the majority vote to get all aeriated about made-up numbers when the truth is they are all unreliable and untrustworthy. Does anyone seriously trust the numbers we get from Eurostat, the OECD, the World Bank, the IMF, even the ONS let alone the Treasury or the OBR?

Which means we are reduced to questions like getting through passport control with more difficulty or worrying about immigration and the absence of cheap Polish plumbers.

In the great scheme of things, Brexit is neither here nor there. We are at the mercy of Governments of limited competence and world events over which we have no control or even influence.

If the country is broken, don’t blame Brexit, blame the people trying to run it (and those who tried and failed). https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/

Forever blowing bubbles

David Sullivan has been accused of being a sexual predator. Who'd have thought?

Surely, if he was as disgusting as the BBC claims, then Baroness Karren Brady would never have had anything to do with him.