So many things Labour are doing weren't on their Manifesto, Disability Cuts, Winter Fuel Allowance Cut, Digital ID, Social Media Ban, Massive Defence Spending...
So it's strange that they can do all those things, but PR, EU, Nationalising Water etc.
Are 'impossible'.
Gary Stevenson, This was the country that introduced the proportional income, the, the progressive income tax"
"Didn't exist. We did it here in this country, and look at what we did. Look at what we achieved"
"Listen, my grandmother was born here in this city in the 1920s, in the richest city, in the richest country in the history of the world, and three of her siblings died of tuberculosis"
"That is what happens when you don't deal with your inequality"
"Surrounded by desperate poverty. And in the course of her lifetime, just one lifetime, we moved from that kind of country where ordinary hardworking people see their kids die of poverty"
"To the world that my dad grew up in, where he worked for the post office for thirty-five years, bought a house, had a pension, had a retirement, had three kids, financial security, good quality education, good quality healthcare, good quality housing"
"We did that in the course of one woman's lifetime with no historical precedent of it ever happening before"
"So don't tell me it's impossible"
Tony Blair has nothing to offer Labour in 2026.
His neoliberalism, backing of endless wars and acceptance of inequality are exactly what Labour must break from if it wants to rebuild support and defeat the far-right.
Ofgem’s so-called energy price cap is a total con. Bills are going up again
We need a real price cap that protects ordinary people, paid for through the profits of energy giants.
We need to replace expensive gas with cheaper renewables.
And energy back in public ownership!
The Brexit referendum was 10 years, 3 General elections, 5 Prime Ministers, and 4 million dead leave voters ago.
Arguing that once something is voted in, people should never get to vote again, is not democracy. THAT'S fascism.
The state pension is not a random government favour, it’s the back end of a 35–40 year compulsory “contract” where people are forced to hand over National Insurance on the clear promise of a basic pension at the end.
Politicians and think tanks helped design an unfunded, pay‑as‑you‑go system where today’s workers pay today’s pensioners, then have the gall to call it “unsustainable” as if the public dreamt it up.
If a private firm sold you a retirement product on fixed terms, took your money for four decades, then announced at 66 that you “didn’t really need it” and would henceforth be means‑tested or frozen, they would be in court for mis‑selling and fraud.
The crisis here is not pensioners “leeching off the young”, it’s a political class that built a Ponzi‑style NI system, diverted the proceeds for other spending, and now wants to default on the people who kept their side of the bargain.
You do not blame the victims of a defective product for believing the brochure; you go after the people who wrote it.
Some of the judges liked this just enough to longlist it in this year’s @PoetrySociety National Poetry Competition. We jobbing poets will gratefully take all the help we can get.
Visit their website for details of the winning poems, and a reading on 31 March.
About time, tax these anti-social monsters off the street. They have no place in cities.
'Adults walking or cycling are 14% more likely to die in a collision when the car involved is an SUV; children are 77% more likely'
https://t.co/lO9hiKJRKN
"One of Us" was ABBA's final parting single - so we've adapted it into a 🎶 parody we're calling "Exodus" to reflect on the urinary trickle of Tory departures to Reform UK, most notably two driplets from the bottom of the last government's barrel @RobertJenrick & @nadhimzahawi.
Wouldn’t normally post Ch*****as stuff before 1st December but, as you’ll see, that would miss the whole point of it.(And this is what you get when you won’t allow yourself a sitting-in-a-café poem.🤣🤣🤣)
Politicans often talk about 'doing something on cost of living'.
Here's an easy one. Let homeowners repair their properties without spending loads on surveys, consultants and application fees.
‘They’re putting up the lights . . . ‘
You could send a poetry pamphlet instead of a card, this year. This, with gorgeous artwork by Sarah Young, is from @poetrycandle with envelope and bookmark. Circa £7.00.
The First World War miraculously produced all sorts of high culture. But every year on this day it is worth watching the ending of the greatest sitcom, which somehow managed to catch the tone of remembrance exactly, perfectly right.
my parents did something wonderful. instead of pocket money they took me to the local library to choose 2-3 books a month. but because of austerity politics and economic cuts that library doesn't exist anymore. now children living in poverty get criticised for not reading enough.