I heard a theory that change doesn’t happen until the last person who remembers why we don’t do it that way has retired. E.g. unions didn’t flex their power till the 70s, because that’s when everyone who remembered the terrible unemployment of the 30s and hence counselled caution was gone.
Similarly, we’re now at the stage where the reasons for “why don’t we let councils raise their own money?” is a question no-one now involved learnt the answer to the hard way, so back round it comes.
Personally, I think a bit more transparency over and direct engagement in local authority funding would probably be good for us, not least as Burnham apparently also wants to reform social care, which is a huge chunk of funding that is invisible to most people, and horribly inadequate and means-tested when it hoves into view.
You could have a system where the complication is just in the transition, and hence where, once the transition is completed, it’d be simple again. Although, in this case, that complicated transition would probably take decades, since (for instance) a pensioner who just retired and gets grandfathered out of the changes might still live 20 more years in that house, still enjoying their exemption.
The property tax system that was just proposed and killed bears a great resemblance to how much of the USA does state and especially local government funding.
It’s probably one of the most inequality-genic features of USA governance. And that’s saying something.
Yeah, one big consequence is that schools get funded from local property taxes. So rich towns end up with a lot of money to spend on schools, and poor towns end up with underfunded schools. Which sets up a feedback loop: Families with enough money to be able to choose where they live often choose the community that has the best schools, and so those rich towns get even richer.
Cafes are, relatively, booming compared to ‘pubs, clubs etc’. They have a steady supply of daytime audience of Mums, retirees and office workers. Pubs, on the other hand, have suffered from life style changes (smoking ban, expansion of leisure options, home entertainment, preference for dining out over just drinking, cost of living). And being a much loved part of our culture, successive politicians try to put in place ways to help them survive.
It’s always surprising to me how much of the the public worldwide, and hence their politicians, live their lives staring longingly in the rear view mirror. With evidently no thought whatever for the future in which they’ll live their entire remaining life.
More seriously, if they want pubs, ban pubcos. No entity may own or control, in any fashion whatsoever, more than one location. Done.
We in the USA should do the same for all forms of housing.
Well the election for Burnham’s replacement as Mayor of Manchester was this week. As predicted by all the political commentators, Reform obviously took it in a landslide, therefore showing what a mistake it was for Burnham to resign.
No, wait. It turns out that Labour won with an increased majority and roughly twice the number of votes as Reform. Laura will be on the BBC tomorrow to explain exactly how this means trouble for Burnham.
I think that’s now 7 by-election losses in a row for Reform. Fingers crossed they will make it 8 in a couple of weeks time. Farage is already leaking news stories about a recent abdominal surgery, so there’s a good chance he will withdraw before the vote. Especially as his party needs to spend a lot of time answering police questions right now.
The number of people who bothered to participate was about 25%. Hard to get anyone to take much interest in a by-election once the summer holidays are underway.
The populace is fickle. There is a fairly brief honeymoon period and in a relatively short time if nothing happens people will conclude he is just like Starmer.
While he has only been in office a month he has been planning to become PM for many years–so he should know what he wants to do.