A conservative-minded columnist reads the Liverpool conference speech with a pencil and gives the other side its best paragraph
Monday, The Speech With a Missing Page
I watched the Liverpool conference speech with a pencil and a plate of toast, and I wrote up my reading in Burnham's Liverpool conference speech. The headlines were changes to the triple lock pension guarantee from 2030 and a national care service. My complaint, as a columnist who leans to the right, is that the speech promised a great deal and attached no price. A promise without a funding line is a wish, and wishes are cheap in September and expensive in March.
Fairness requires the other side. Supporters of the plan say that social care is a genuine crisis, that families are paying ruinous sums and that serious reform needs a first step and not a perfect spreadsheet. They add that funding plans usually follow principles in government, and that opposition parties rarely publish fully costed alternatives themselves. These are real points, and I put them in my notes right next to mine.
The Economist on the Left
The most interesting reaction came from a left-wing economist who marked the plan from the other direction. I covered it in a left-wing economist marks the care plan. His argument, as I read it, is that the care service needs a wealth tax and not a change to the triple lock. I disagree with the remedy, but I admire the clarity. When the left argues with itself, the public gets the best seminar in politics.
Tuesday, Back to the Fields
When the numbers give me a headache, I read the farm pages. The dairy pages are dairyherd.org. The beef pages are ranchbeefcattle.org. The machinery is at tractorequipment.org. The planting calendar is at cropcalendar.org.
The money pages are farmmoney.org and smallfarminfo.org. Work is at agjobscareers.org. Shows are at fairandrodeo.org. The overview is ruralfarm.org, and safety is at farmssafety.org. A farmer reading a Budget has the great advantage of knowing exactly what a tractor costs.
Wednesday, Boilers and Budgets
The London Prat made a housing joke with First-Time Buyers Swap Rent for Boiler Repairs. Housing policy splits the parties. The right tends to stress planning reform and supply. The left tends to stress rent protection and social housing. Both can show a chart, and neither chart mends a boiler.
Thursday, Council Tax Bands
After the Budget I waited, with the rest of London, for the council tax band checker, and I wrote about it in Budget aftermath, London. Property taxes are a perennial argument. Supporters of reform say that old bands are out of date and unfair. Opponents say that new burdens fall on homeowners already squeezed. I record both views and keep the checker open in another tab.
Friday, Toast
The week ended as it began, with toast. The toast, at least, had a clear funding plan: bread, butter and a toaster. I recommend that every policy paper be required to attach a toaster to its proposals, as a reminder that the thing must actually work.
Saturday, The Triple Lock Explained
The triple lock is the commitment to raise the basic state pension each year by the highest of average earnings growth, price inflation or two and a half percent. Supporters say it protects pensioners from falling behind and recognises a lifetime of contributions. Critics say it is costly, that it can favour older people over younger workers, and that its price rises as the population ages. Economists of different leanings can be found on both sides, which is a useful reminder that the issue is not simply left against right.
Any change from 2030 would give people time to plan, and that is a point in the government’s favour. The opposition argues that a long lead time can also postpone a hard decision. Both statements are accurate, and the voter must decide which risk worries them more.
Sunday, A Note on Care
Care is the policy area where everyone has a story. A neighbour paying for a parent’s care home, a friend giving up work to look after a relative, a nurse describing a hospital bed that cannot be freed because there is nowhere to send the patient. These stories explain why the issue moves voters, and why politicians of every party promise to address it. The hard part, as ever, is the bill.
I raise a pencil to anybody who produces a costed plan that survives scrutiny from both sides. They will have solved something that has defeated governments for decades.
Monday, The Toast Report
Toast is the one commodity in my kitchen that has never been the subject of a spending review. It requires a slice, a heat source and a modest amount of attention, and it delivers its promise in about ninety seconds. If only government programmes were so reliable.
I keep a loaf for emergencies, which in my household includes Budgets, by-elections and any occasion when a minister says that nothing is off the table.
Where to read next
The rest of the shelf lives at prat.uk, bohiney.com and farm.fm. For a second opinion on the week, The Daily Mash keeps its own counsel and its own hours.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/