George Eaton
@georgeeaton
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Coronavirus is a reminder that the welfare state is not “a burden” but a form of collective insurance against life’s hazards: ill-health, disability, the death of a partner, unemployment. It should never have been so weakened by cuts.
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A graduate earning £50k will pay a *higher* marginal rate (51%) than someone on £150K (42%). A graduate earning £25k will pay a 40% marginal rate, just 2 points less than top earners.
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The number of asylum applications received by European countries in 2019:. Germany: 165,615.France: 128,940.Spain: 117,795.Greece: 77,275.UK: 44,835.
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Rishi Sunak’s political stock is plummeting almost as fast as living standards.
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The rise in National Insurance means graduates earning over £27,295 will now pay a marginal tax rate of 42.25% once student loan repayments are included.
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A reminder: it wasn’t just London that voted Remain, it was Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Northern Ireland, Scotland.
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On the same day that it announced the end of compulsory mask-wearing the government introduced a bill for compulsory voter ID. You’d never guess that Covid-19 is still a serious problem and that voter fraud is a largely non-existent one.
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Important to remember today: the wealthiest 1% of the global population account for more than double the carbon emissions of the poorest 50%.
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Whatever your view of Gordon Brown, his personal conduct since leaving No. 10 has been a model to others.
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"Boris Johnson may be the worst prime minister in living memory, but it is the Conservative Party’s MPs and constituency parties who have promoted, enabled and protected him at every step."
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Rishi Sunak bears a lot of the blame for the Covid crisis: he encouraged the rush back to the office, launched Eat Out to Help Out and told people to “live with it and live without fear”. Fear, it turns out, was entirely rational.
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My dad, Michael, died peacefully last night surrounded by his children. He was a talented exhibition organiser, a Leeds supporter and a fan of Bowie and The Jam. I loved him and grief is the price we pay for love.
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A truly stunning age divide: 57% of 18-24-year-olds voted Labour, only 18% of over-65s did.
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The reason Boris Johnson made the absurd comparison between the Ukrainian resistance and Brexit is that he thinks recharging the Remain-Leave wars is his best hope of survival.
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The median UK wage is £28,677 - political debate would be improved if everyone memorised this fact. #bbcqt.
“I’d like to call out Labour as liars. I am one of the people he will tax more”. This audience member, who earns over £80,000, criticises the taxation promises in the Labour Party manifesto. #bbcqt
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When Kwarteng says "a little turbulence" he means the *largest* monthly rise in government debt interest since 1957 – something we are literally all paying for.
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Fitting that Chris Grayling's resignation is running hours late.
An informed source suggests to me that Chris Grayling is considering his position as Transport Secretary. Would be another huge blow if Theresa May lost her campaign manager from the leadership election (and fellow former Merton councillor).
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So the Brexit Secretary didn’t understand importance of Dover-Calais, the Northern Ireland Secretary didn’t understand Unionist/Nationalist differences and the Media Secretary doesn’t subscribe to any papers or magazines. Detect a pattern here?.
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We’re about to discover what happens when you have the inflation of the 1970s with the gutted trade unions of the 2020s.
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Nigel Farage considering London mayoral bid. Fact: from the top of the London Eye he can see all seven of the constituencies that have already rejected him.
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Labor’s election victory in Australia continues the centre left’s advance, it’s now in power in:. - New Zealand.- Germany.- Spain.- Portugal.- All five Nordic countries.
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Whatever your view of Scottish independence, it's hard to argue that Scotland being pulled out of the EU against its will doesn't represent a "material change of circumstances".
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The UK has achieved the worst of both worlds: the largest recession of any G7 country as well as the highest excess death rate in Europe.
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The fact Russia may soon invade Ukraine is an argument for removing Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, not for keeping him.
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Useful to learn how many conservatives regard children missing a day of school as more of an emergency than climate change.
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The UK is at *full employment* and 40% of those claiming Universal Credit are in work.
'There are too many people in this country who are of working age, who are of good health, and who are choosing to rely on benefits'. Tory leadership contender Suella Braverman tells ITV News Political Correspondent @carldinnen that the UK spends 'too much on welfare'
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Why interest rates rising in the 2020s is *not* the same as in the 1980s:. - UK house prices have increased by over 1,000% since 1980 (so debt is much higher). - Real wages have stagnated for over a decade. - There is no mortgage interest tax relief.
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Did no one tell Boris Johnson that this was followed by 40 years wandering in the wilderness?.
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Boris Johnson says Labour would raise corporation tax to "the highest in Europe" - a flat-out lie. The rate would be 26%, lower than Germany, France, Portugal, Belgium and Greece to name a few. #ITVDebate.
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Gina Miller has twice changed the course of history and defended democracy in the face of immense intimidation - that’s some achievement.
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In Greece, politicians are warning of the danger of becoming “the next Britain”.
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“Don’t forget”. This is Starmer’s most brutal assault on the Conservatives’ record.
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The new Northern Ireland Assembly features 53 members who support the protocol and 37 who oppose it. This fact should be a lot better known than it is.
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No mandatory masks, charging people for tests, reducing NHS app sensitivity - it’s beginning to look a lot like herd immunity.
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Given that something as essential as Universal Credit is *entirely online* (not to mention job applications), fast and free broadband is a genuine human need.
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Boris Johnson is nine points ahead of Labour in his seat. The combined Lib Dem/Green vote is . nine points.
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After Neil Ferguson resigned over breaching lockdown rules, No10 said: “The PM agrees with that decision. Social distancing regulations are there for a very clear purpose.”.
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Most statisticians have long recognised that “excess deaths”, not daily death figures, is the key metric and the UK has suffered 65,700 - one of the world’s highest rates. Row over PHE numbers is a sideshow.
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A reminder of the results of the Conservatives’ own “anti-growth coalition”.
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Jo Cox was the first MP to be murdered since 1990. It's truly courageous that her sister's response was to go into politics rather than run away from it.
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Omicron would have been far worse if Chris Whitty hadn’t encouraged a voluntary lockdown – something for which he was denounced by Tory MPs.
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How history will remember Theresa May: she fought the worst election campaign in history and endured the biggest-ever government defeat.
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The UK is facing a living standards emergency and no party is offering solutions of anything like the scale required.
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You’d never guess from coverage of the rail strike that the RMT disaffiliated from Labour in *2004*.
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If the government truly wanted to “save Christmas” it shouldn’t have spent the summer paying people to eat out and urging them to return to the office.
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A ready-made election poster for opposition parties: “He’s not worried about a no-deal Brexit but you should be.”
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Chris Whitty warns daily deaths will likely surpass this week's record of 1,564. He and Vallance were mocked for warning the second wave could cause 200 daily deaths.
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The UK’s daily death toll (980) has now exceeded Italy’s highest (919) - the tragedy is that we had time to learn from their experience - Italy locked down 9 March, the UK 23 March.
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The BBC should not be reporting the invasion of Ukraine as “Putin orders peacekeepers”.
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And so departs the worst Foreign Secretary in post-war history.
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Things Boris Johnson has recently said he hadn’t heard of: . - Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign. - Dominic Cummings’ trip to Durham. - “No recourse to public funds” for over a million migrants. - BBC breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty.
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Sadiq Khan's classy response to a giant blimp of him: "If people want to spend their Saturday looking at me in a yellow bikini they’re welcome to do so - I don’t really think yellow’s my colour though."
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The Greens have gained more seats than Labour in England – this trend deserves as much attention as UKIP’s rise.
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England is the *only* country in the world with a fully privatised water and sewerage system.
Thames Water troubles swell as parent firm defaults on debt
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A stat which never fails to stun: the UK has seven of the 10 poorest regions in northern Europe.
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New Zealand has recorded five Covid-19 deaths to the UK's 43,429. NZ's GDP fell by 12.2% in Q2, the UK's fell by 19.8%. So if Ardern is no hero, what does that make Johnson?
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The UK now has:. - The highest excess death rate of any country. - The worst forecast economic recession. - The joint-lowest government approval rating.
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Remarkable from senior No 10 adviser: “What you learn about Boris was he didn’t chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He didn’t work weekends . There was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared”
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Parliament is the poorer for not having @RoryStewartUK in it. Whether you agree with him or not, few MPs know Afghanistan better. He was also remarkably prescient on Covid/lockdown and light years ahead of the UK government.
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This EU document could be called “Pour décourager les autres”.
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In 2018, austerity and dogmatic privatisation have led to:. - The emergency state takeover of Birmingham prison. - The emergency renationalisation of the East Coast Mainline. - The collapse of Carillion. - The bankruptcy of Tory-led Northamptonshire council.
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A point not made enough: a no-deal Brexit isn’t the end of negotiations but merely the beginning.
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On income tax, someone earning £80,001 would pay just *5p* more under Labour's plans. Tax rates are marginal: it's 45% on earnings over £80k, but many assume 45% of entire salary.
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Keir Starmer is only one game away from being able to adapt Harold Wilson’s line: “Have you ever noticed how we only win the World Cup under a Labour government?”.
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The problem with this argument is that an interest rate of 10% in the 1970s is equivalent to one of just *2%* today. House prices are 65 times higher now than in 1970, average wages are only 35 times higher.
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In England, graduates earning £27,295+ are paying a marginal tax rate of 39% and 7.5% interest on student loans. This still deserves more political attention.
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A big increase in Universal Credit would be a more effective stimulus than tax cuts for the rich because those on low incomes spend rather than save any extra income.
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Imagining how Gordon Brown would have responded if anyone in No10 threw a party during lockdown and a national crisis.
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Rishi Sunak is right that "the first 1,001 days of a child’s life are the most important" but:. - 1,300 Sure Start centres closed since 2010. - Universal Credit £1,040 uplift ended for all families. - No serious strategy to end child poverty.
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Ministers knew that the Delta variant had entered the UK on 1 April but it took *22 days* for India to be placed on the Red List. This delay was not inevitable but an avoidable political failure.
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The UK locked down far too late. That three SAGE members have now said it’s easing lockdown too early should trouble us all.
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A remarkable stat: “Around 50% of UK offshore wind is publicly owned right now, but only 0.07% of it is publicly owned by the UK.” (Via @We_OwnIt)
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Sunak going on about the furlough scheme has the air of a friend reminding you about the round they once bought.
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Truss won't acknowledge two things that reduced growth: Brexit and public spending cuts.
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The UK is the only major country in Europe not to have announced that it will subsidise employees’ wages or make direct cash payments to its citizens. (Via @georgegrylls)
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It turns out that they did not, in fact, fix the roof.
A great speech by @George_Osborne - we're on the right track & we'll fix the roof when the sun is shining.
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The majority ownership of German football teams by fans means that not a single club is proposing to join the Super League – another example of the truth the UK has too often neglected: *ownership matters*.
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The avoidable errors that led to 100,000 UK deaths:. - Three late lockdowns.- Untested patients despatched to care homes.- Ordering workers back to offices.- Eat Out to Help Out.- Lack of self-isolation support.- Not testing/quarantining travellers
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The Tories are likely to have the UK’s first non-white PM, just as they had the first female one, and Labour needs to spend more time reflecting on why that’s the case.
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The DWP has just published its Equality Analysis of winter fuel payment cuts (yes, on Friday night). Around 71% of pensioners with a disability and 83% of the over-80s will lose the benefit.
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The stat to remember isn't that inflation is now 4.7%, it's that prices have risen by 16% in two years and food bills by 28%.
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If Boris Johnson has accepted a Northern Ireland-only backstop, the UK will have wasted almost two years opposing the solution offered by the EU in February 2018.
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John McDonnell: "The Tories need to sort themselves, because when we get into government we will need an effective opposition.".
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The Conservatives are on course to win their lowest share of the vote in any nationwide election since 1832. #EP2019.
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The free-marketeers fought the markets and the markets won.
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A quick reminder that the UK gave up the best deal any EU member state has ever had.
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Smoking is banned/regulated in public areas to prevent passive smoking among other things. There is a strong case for treating Covid-19 and mask-wearing in the same way at this point.
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A stat to remember: there are 89 parliamentary seats where the Lib Dems are in second place and 79 of them are held by the Tories.
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Rishi Sunak is now blaming *the unemployed* for inflation (yes, really). Economic nonsense and disgraceful politics.
“How do we get inflation down. We need to get much tougher on welfare”. Rishi Sunak hits rock bottom with the demonization of benefit claimants . @UKLabour must call out this outrageous & utterly contemptible bull****
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Since 9 out of 10 cars seen driving in outer London will not be affected by Ulez, I suspect a significant number of voters wrongly *believed* they would be charged.
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The Tories this year:. - David Warburton loses whip over alleged sexual harassment. - Imran Ahmad Khan convicted of child sexual assault. - Neil Parish, tractors and porn. - Tory MP arrested on suspicion of rape. - Deputy chief whip resigns after allegedly groping two men.
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The Welsh vaccine rollout has been the fastest *in the world* – today's @NewStatesman Chart of the Day on a remarkable achievement.
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One of the reasons Remain lost in 2016 was the arrogance it resonated. The assumption of many that they’d win a second referendum shows they haven’t learned.
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Further proof that the UK is a banana monarchy: after being appointed a Privy Counsellor by Theresa May, Tory MP Edward Leigh has announced he will vote for her Brexit deal.
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A sharp quip from Labour's Peter Dowd on Theresa May's Brexit "95% done" boast: "May I remind the House that 95 per cent of the Titanic's journey was completed successfully.".
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Starmer's style is menacingly polite: "I didn't need correcting", "I put him on notice". #PMQs.
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It’s not just Boris Johnson who bears responsibility for the UK’s catastrophic performance. Rishi Sunak recklessly encouraged workers back to offices, diners to eat out and lobbied against strict restrictions.
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"Not Armageddon" is setting the bar quite low.
Liam Fox: "Leaving without a deal will not be the Armageddon some people predict.".
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