𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Full marks to Tory Regional Mayors Ben Houchen and Paul Bristow, who, between them, have highlighted how much of a sham Andy Burnham’s much vaunted belief in devolution really is. Ben Houchen said that any extra money he received, he wanted to hand back to locals in the form of a tax cut to stimulate the economy, only to be told by Burnham that his form of devolution means that you can’t actually make your own decisions, you can only make decisions that Burnham himself agrees with. Some devolution!

Paul Bristow then highlighted that, despite being promised to keep more of your own money if you were successful, the small print actually makes clear that money will be taken from the successful areas and handed to the less successful ones. No wonder the Prime Minister would sooner talk about preferring pork scratchings to scampi fries. His devolution policy is as vacuous as he is.

What an embarrassment!

New Chancellor John Healey has wasted no time in making a fool of himself by saying he won’t allow supermarkets to rip off their customers with high prices. Supermarkets are the most competitive, efficiently run businesses in the UK and operate on incredibly tight margins. Does Healey not know that?

What is he going to do? Introduce price caps in supermarkets, which will lead to empty shelves instead?

There is only one organisation that is overcharging and ripping off the public, and that is this Government with the eye-watering tax burden it is presiding over.

This really is basic stuff…

Another day, and another steward’s inquiry over the CV of a Labour Minister. This time, it is Angela “tax confusion” Rayner. She claims she had 14 years’ service in local Government as a home care worker, but other amounts she has given suggest it was much less than that.

It would appear the discrepancy transpires from the fact that, much of the time, a home care worker was actually spending working for Unison as a trade union branch secretary. I’m not sure what’s worse – another misleading CV or that Angela and Unison let Stockport Council taxpayers pick up the tab for union activity.

I don’t mind what job she did, but I do mind taxpayers being forced to pay for union facility time. Union work should be paid from union subs. Is that really too much to ask?

Stop this infuriating virtue-signalling

I’m hugely supportive of the police, but some of their senior officers don’t help themselves, like those at West Midlands Police who are encouraging non-Muslim police officers to fast during the Muslim festival of Ramadan.

Organised by the Association of Muslim Police, senior officers say the event will help foster workplace solidarity and inclusion, helping colleagues understand the physical and mental discipline required for the holy month. What a load of politically correct tripe. Have they really nothing better to be doing?

My advice to West Midlands Police is to stop this infuriating virtue-signalling and concentrate on getting out on the streets, protecting the public, and catching criminals.

Makes spidey sense!

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, starring Tom Holland and his beautiful wife Zendaya, broke opening day records as the film raked in a massive $168million, making Tom Holland London’s biggest box office and pop culture export to Hollywood since Michael Caine. Not many people know that.