Fraser Maclean

[Richard Johnson @richardmarcj]

This is a very good, balanced piece on the rise and fall of the Right to Buy, its winners and losers, as well as broader reflection on the state of social (and private) housing today.

[Fraser Maclean @frazjmac]

I wrote about the slow death and legacy of Right to Buy for @unherd. A life-changing scheme for millions, and a landlord factory for millions more, it has nevertheless been a negligible factor for years: harder decisions lie ahead.

[UnHerd @unherd]

At the Labour Party Conference this week, Andy Burnham all but killed Right to Buy.

But Britain’s broader housing policy is still a mess, writes @frazjmac 👇
https://t.co/DfCG24CPkd

[Future of the Left @FutureLeft1]

🚨New FotL issue with intro from @Lyan82 on agency🚨

Includes:
@DowningAm on privatisation
@wessiedutoit on Bismarck
@ghostofchristo1 on HyperNormalisation
@arisroussinos on Piddington

⬇️🔗

[Fraser Maclean @frazjmac]

Westminster hacks lamented the loss of S Flynn to Holyrood...

https://t.co/EYCfUXyjHa

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Stephen Flynn tries to turn his lack of preparation for this morning’s Transport Committee meeting into a bit of a joke. Willie Rennie is decidedly unimpressed.

[Despotic Inroad @DespoticInroad]

There's a lot of evidence now on Gove/Cummings DfE-era reforms, where you have to say that they were right, & the unions/the Left/"the Blob" were wrong.

Cameron-Osborne-Clegg was a calamitous era. The macro-economic strategy sowed the seeds of most of the problems we face today (low investment, low-productivity, cheap labour Deliveroo economy with a pumped housing market & crap/creaking public realm, over-exposed to inflationary/deglobalisation era).

But on schooling, the results speak for themselves (while also demonstrating that education isn't a panacea for positive growth/generational outcomes?)

[Ian Leslie @mrianleslie]

Doesn't address even one specific allegation. This guy is such a relentless, indefatigable bullshitter, it's awe-inspiring. https://t.co/hrtLBAiImj

[LabourRealists @LabourRealists]

Notes on Security:

Today we set out a series of policies that will help ease the prison crisis.

14 years of Conservative failure to expand our prison capacity has left us on the brink.

[Fraser Maclean @frazjmac]

Too much of the devolution debate has ignored the point made below, framing councils as economic development actors rather than the care boards they are

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

The first - as Burnham acknowledges - is that local authorities have a responsibility to deliver care and other services that are squeezing out everything else. As long as that's true, fiscal devolution is pointless. A case of 'Any spending you want, as long as it's on care.'

[Tyler Austin Harper @Tyler_A_Harper]

But the new wisdom that insists that men need to be more emotionally open with their friends turns a *public* problem—stemming from the collapse of civil society—into a private, individual problem that would be fixed if men simply behaved differently and enjoyed different things.

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

Big news in the Washington Post. Scotland's top rate of tax lost £30bn in revenue.

An impressive feat when all of Scottish tax comes to about £20bn.

[Future of the Left @FutureLeft1]

🍺🥧🍟🍺New FotL issue out with intro from Tobias Phibbs 🍺🥧🍟🍺

Includes:
@bengglover on reindustrialisation
@jntod on Philip Larkin
@nicwilding on the British working class
@Alex_Niven on Basil Bunting
@MarkMcvitie on No.10 strategy
@frazjmac on William F. Buckley Jr

⬇️🔗

[Despotic Inroad @DespoticInroad]

It was often assumed that it was the Hard Left who were the worst pushers of this insane identity politics (and many Cool Kid Greta-Gaza Corbynite types DID/DO indulge). But many in the workerist trade union/old-fashioned Marxist tradition rejected this nonsense from the get-go. And actually the WORST purveyors tend to be progressive centre-Left & liberal centre-Right Sensibles™️. & they do it largely in lieu of having anything to say on political economy, cogent diagnoses/prescriptions for the country, or any charismatic/likeable figures among them.

This 👇 frmr Minister/Starmer-loyalist/ N London Labour ally stood down after it emerged she’d been gifted a flat by her aunt, the deposed kleptocratic leader of Bangladesh. Perhaps a period of silence on her part would be welcome?🤔

[Fraser Maclean @frazjmac]

Sarwar will get to hide behind Starmer in history, but he got trounced by an SNP with endless baggage and the vast majority of the Scottish public would not be able to name a single signature policy/issue he stood for.

[Fraser Maclean @frazjmac]

https://t.co/mASzZ6Nw1a

[Fraser Maclean @frazjmac]

https://t.co/mASzZ6Nw1a

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 BREAKING: Andy Burnham has given a peerage to Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar so he can become a Minister

He was the first major Labour figure to call for Keir Starmer to resign and will now quit as leader

[Capel Lofft @CapelLofft]

This article by @j_amesmarriott is excellent. I particularly agree with him that we need to rediscover the dark side of our comic & satirical tradition. Twee smugness is not the opposite of cynicism but rather its complement.

https://t.co/526Lpz18T7

[Fraser Maclean @frazjmac]

'...teenage children suffering mental health crises, stuck in an airbnb with a few ‘carers’, who barely speak English, who are given nothing in the way of support or education (whilst the illegal provider pockets £200k-£1m+ per child per year)...'

https://t.co/qliEKXzSPQ

[Russell Curtis @russellcurtis]

@emptyhomes @CHinchliffMP I think this argument would carry more weight if the public sector was stepping up to deliver homes instead, but it's not, so propping up developers might be the least worst option.

[Ben Sixsmith @BDSixsmith]

Tony Blair: Wow, get a load of AI. We should probably cut welfare somewhat. Also, we should be involved in the Iran War for some reason.

Broadsheet columnist: Say what you like about the man, but the sophistication of his analysis is unparalleled.

[Leo Gibbons @Layo_FH]

You can be a buy-to-let landlord if you keep your main residence as your social housing. Which is wild!

We recently caught a fraudster who was a tenant of ours. He had a social media hustle & grind persona where he sold his luxury lifestyle as part of being a buy-to-let AirBnB guru. Flashy watches, holidays to Dubai etc etc, ‘join my programme and it’ll teach you to maximise your passive income through an AirBnB property portfolio’ etc.

However, he foolishly rented out his social housing flat as an AirBnB, and we caught him.

If he had not done that, it would have been fine for him to keep his tenancy and keep rolling in £££ as a BtL landlord with his other properties, while 336,000 households sit in council house waiting lists across London.

[Stella Tsantekidou @Stsantek]

The sheer arrogance it requires to run for public office on a student visa. People should use their own judgement but what makes some feel they are capable of representing local people when they have only lived in a country for a handful of years? Obviously as an immigrant myself I believe we can and do assimilate, but my goodness earn your stripes first mate!